A water company has hit back at claims that the city has the worst bathing water quality in the UK.

A study by SEO marketing agency Reboot found that Brighton and Hove saw the highest surge in e.coli count since the start of the pandemic, with a more than 670 per cent increase.

The findings also discovered an almost 900 per cent increase in intestinal enterococci over the same period.

The research compared data between 2017 and 2019 with the average count recorded between 2020 and 2022.

Reboot also noted that Brighton’s central beach had its water quality rating reduced to good from excellent by the government in 2022.

Chichester ranked second worst in the study, with a project run by the Clean Harbours Partnership recently discovering potentially dangerous levels of E. coli in Chichester Harbour late last year.

Other parts of Sussex also fared poorly, with Arun, Adur and Eastbourne all included among the top ten areas with the highest levels of bacteria in seas and rivers.

Top ten areas with the highest bacteria levels in rivers and seas

  1. Brighton and Hove
  2. Chichester
  3. Havant
  4. Portsmouth
  5. Swale
  6. Eastbourne
  7. Isle of Wight
  8. Dorset
  9. Adur
  10. Arun

However, Southern Water has slammed the study and denied releasing sewage from Albion Groyne, just days after a plaque was erected there by environmental activists criticising the practice.

A Southern Water spokesman pointed out that Brighton had the third-fewest releases in the country over the same period.

He said: “The degradation score is not a measure of bathing water quality - it makes a comparison between some e.coli scores before the pandemic and scores after.

“Brighton had one of the three fewest storm overflow events in the entire country in the dataset examined - largely thanks to the state-of-the-art wastewater treatment works in Peacehaven.

“Europe’s largest storm tunnel runs under the cliffs between Brighton Marina and Peacehaven, holding hundreds of millions of litres of rainwater during storms.

“Brighton’s central beach has a Defra “good” rating, while Kemp Town is rated “excellent”.

“Contrary to the claims, there has been no release from Albion Groyne this year.”

He also noted that many factors influence bathing water, including litter left by beachgoers and runoff from nearby roads.