A CORNISH beach has again been named and shamed at the annual 'Brown Flag Awards' – but overall the county has held its high ranking position for clean swimming water.

UK travel site Holidayparkguru.co.uk has analysed the Environment Agency’s annual summertime water quality data at hundreds of beaches to reveal the 19 grubby ‘winners’ for 2025 – including Porthluney, near St Austell.

The same beach also won a Brown Flag Award last year. The Brown Flag beaches are those rated as 'poor' by the Environment Agency due to bacteria such as e-coli from sewage and other waste.

The number of Brown Flag beaches in England leapt up from 13 in 2024 to 19 in 2025 – an increase of 46 per cent.

Holidayparkguru.co.uk are offering free brown flags so that the 19 winners can warn summer swimmers about their poor rating. Each flag is tastefully decorated with a poo emoji.

Overall, 82 per cent of Cornwall’s beaches are rated as ‘excellent’ for water cleanliness. Northumberland, Devon and Dorset were the only counties to score higher than Cornwall.

There are also some positive signs that Cornwall is cleaning up its water quality. Two Cornwall beaches have been upgraded for their cleanliness in the last year – Long Rock and Porthminster are now rated as ‘excellent’ rather than ‘good’. Unfortunately, Kingsand has been downgraded from ‘excellent’ to ‘good’.

Campaigner and sea-swimmer, Robbie Lane from HolidayParkGuru.co.uk said: “We had hoped that we’d be handing out fewer Brown Flags this year – but things have gone down the pan. For Cornwall, the bad news is that it’s picked up a Brown Flag Award for the second year in a row.

“The good news is that about four out of five beaches in Cornwall are rated as ‘excellent’ for their water quality in summer.”