Dawlish Town

Dawlish Town beach has a mixture of sand and shingle. It follows the curve of the sheltered bay from Lea Mount to Langstone Rock for over a mile.

Great for swimming, with pleasure boat trips around the bay in summer.

There is a wide, scenic footpath on top of the sea wall at the back of the beach.

Overflow locations

The map below shows the locations of the storm overflows that have the potential to impact water quality at this bathing water.

The map shows whether or not a storm overflow is currently active, the time and duration of the last spill at that location, and our investment commitments that are specific to that overflow.

Dawlish Town storm overflow map

Water quality sample results

The graphs below show the significant reduction in harmful bacteria in the Environment Agency’s (EA) water samples since the 1990s. E. coli and  Intestinal Enterococci exist in all open water - they are found in human and animal poo, and get into the water via sewage spills, road drainage, agricultural livestock, or wildlife and birds. The EA uses the levels of these bacteria to decide whether to award this beach bathing water status.

2025-2030 investment programme

To help reduce the risk of any environmental impact from our sewerage network, and to contribute towards improving bathing water quality at Dawlish beach, we have earmarked circa £1.8m of investment up to March 2025*.

Work was completed on Brook St Manor Gardens storm overflow in March 2022 to target an improved performance of 2 significant spills (greater than 50 metres cubed) per bathing season on average.

New surface water sewers were laid in the area to take rainfall from highways directly into the watercourse. A new storm storage tank was also constructed.

A large number of the roads in the Exeter Road area are connected to the sewerage network hence rainfall from these areas discharge from the storm overflow. We are looking to see if it’s possible to separate the surface drains from the sewerage network. By 2025, we will drain the rainwater directly to the sea via existing surface water sewers. Reducing the volume of water in the network will reduce the need for storm overflows to operate.

The 2025-2030 investment programme is currently being scoped out. If you’re a community group or part of a local network and would like to have your say see ‘Your Beach, Your Say, Our Investment’.

*Amounts earmarked for investment may change dependent on the final design of the optimal solution and costings provided by our supply chain.

4 year overflow spill information

The data shown in the table below is the reported annual total spill number for each overflow which has been identified by the EA for this bathing water.

The assignment of an overflow to the bathing water does not always mean an impact will occur, it can be dependent on a number of factors such as tidal state and weather conditions. Sometimes it has been allocated just for investigation purposes and has no impact at all.

All data collected goes through vigorous quality assurance processes before being included in the counts. Sometimes debris can trigger false spills to be recorded, resulting in potentially higher than actual spill numbers.

Number of spills

  2023 2022 2021 2020
Barton Hill/Brunswick Place storm overflow, Dawlish 31 20 21 25
Brook House storm overflow, Dawlish 0 8 1 1
Brook Street Manor Gardens storm overflow, Dawlish 42 20 26 33
Elm Grove Road storm overflow, Dawlish 4 3 1 8
Piermont Place/Jubilee Bridge storm overflow, Dawlish 31 7 21 7
Royal Hotel pumping station overflow, Dawlish 0 0 0 1
Sandy Lane pumping station overflow Main Flows, Dawlish 44 23 32 32
Sea Lawns pumping station overflow, Dawlish 3 18 4 5
Viaduct pumping station overflow, Dawlish 9 14 21 20
West Cliff Park/Lambeth Walk storm overflow, Dawlish 6 11 9 8
Picture of a blue Cornish beach

Tell us about your beach

We're inviting local community and stakeholder groups to work with us, as we consider where we need to prioritise our investment for 2025.

Your Beach, Your Say, Our Investment
Picture of a dark storm over some hills

More about storm overflows

We know that as a water company, we have a big part to play in improving our network and reducing the number of discharges. We also know there's lots more work to do.

Find out more

The beach profiles were created in line with information provided by our partners, Environment AgencyRNLIKeep Britain TidyMCS - Beach Guide and British Beaches.