A recently designated bathing spot in Totnes has been graded for the first time by the Environment Agency (EA) – and the results are not good.

Steamer Quay in Totnes is one of four located in the Dart Estuary that were designated bathing water sites earlier this year. They were also the first non-coastal sites in Devon.

The four received their first classification based on one season’s worth of sampling, instead of the typical four years of data.

Steamer Quay received the lowest grading of the four - ‘poor’ – followed by Stoke Gabriel, which was graded ‘sufficient’. Dittisham was rated ‘good’ and only Warfleet Creek received the top grading of ‘excellent’.

Imogen Radford, from the Outdoor Swimming Society, however said that the inclusion of rivers in the EA’s figures showed they were not necessarily more polluted than the sea.

“It would be unfortunate to say the least if the impression was given that rivers are inherently not safe or clean places to swim,” she told this paper.

She criticised reports of swimmers falling sick as a result of ‘dangerous pollution’ as “inaccurate and exaggerated”, saying they did not reflected the experience of the vast majority of swimmers.

“We know that there are issues of run-off from agriculture and of sewage in some parts of the country, but the hysterical tone of some coverage is extremely unhelpful for outdoor swimming,” she said.

“Many parts of the country have very few issues, and where there are issues it is not all the time, and swimmers will make a sensible judgement not to swim at the potentially more risky times (generally after heavy rain),” she added.

Sampling was carried out between May and September, with up to 20 water samples being taken at each designated bathing water site during that time.

The EA said bathing water quality achieved a minimum standard for 98 per cent of Devon and Cornwall’s beaches, adding that “nearly every one” of the 155 monitored bathing waters in the two counties met the minimum standards for bathing water quality.

Bruce Newport, area environment manager, nonetheless stressed that the sampling results were not designed to give instant information on whether it is safe to swim.

“What we do is to take a long-term view on how clean beaches and rivers are so people can make an informed choice where to bathe,” he said.

Devon fared better than the rest of the country, as 37 bathing waters in England (8.2 per cent) did not meet the minimum standard and were classified as ‘poor’.

Despite this, critics have questioned the validity of the grading system.

Giles Bristow, from Surfers Against Sewage, told the BBC that the system needed radical reform, saying it was “inadequate” and “misleading”, citing Trevaunance Cove in Cornwall, which received an ‘excellent’ rating despite reportedly having high pollution levels.

Water minister Emma Hardy, who recently launched a review of the rules to include the removal of the fixed bathing water season dates from May to September, described the figures as “unacceptable”, saying that too many of the country’s popular swimming spots were polluted.