Plymouth Hoe East

Plymouth Hoe East is a developed promenade area just below Smeaton’s Lighthouse. The beach itself is rather small and composed of rocks and shingle.

This section of the coast is quite rocky and visitors wishing to enjoy an outdoor swim without the risks of entering the sea can enjoy a splash in Tinside Lido, a delightful 1930’s art-deco saltwater swimming pool.

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.

Plymouth Hoe East 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.

This bathing water is part of our enhanced bathing water quality monitoring trial programme.

Investment programme up to 2025

We are working with the Environment Agency to agree the work that will be delivered to the Plymouth Central sewage treatment works storm overflow. The overflow already has an ultraviolet treatment process which kills bacteria and viruses. 

Further work we have completed or are planning includes:

reducing the amount of saltwater coming into our network through work on the sewer
separating surface water from our sewerage network – working with the Environment Agency and Plymouth City Council
making improvements to the way in which the existing storm water storage works within the area
increasing the amount of wastewater that can be treated at Plymouth Central sewage treatment works – with delivery targeted by 2030.

Reducing the volume going through our network by reducing rainfall, saltwater and groundwater in the network, will reduce storm overflow discharges at other overflow sites. As with most areas, we will do hydraulic modelling, to understand the benefits and impact of the work, and will continue to look at this as work progresses. In addition to the works summarised above, we will improve the Plymouth Central sewage treatment works overflow. We have already:

worked alongside Plymouth City Council to redirect surface water from the sewerage network in two areas upstream of the Trefusis Park storm overflow
worked to enhance the treatment processes at Radford sewage treatment works to provide more resilience
collaborated with Plymouth City Council with their 'Better Places' project in the city centre which will remove large amounts of rainwater currently draining to the sewerage system
reduced groundwater entering the sewerage network upstream of Glenholt pumping station.

We have also diverted a private crude outfall at Admiralty Cottages into our combined sewerage system for treatment.

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’.

5 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

	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
23 St. Peter Close storm overflow, Plymouth	115	111	79	83	102
44 Carmarthen Road storm overflow, Plymouth	33	17	22	14	17
5 Faringdon Road storm overflow, Plymouth	16	16	13	19	9
59 Bretonside storm overflow, Plymouth	70	63	58	64	71
Barbican Tanks storm overflow, Plymouth	3	5	7	4	1
Billacombe pumping station overflow, Plymouth	17	18	20	35	31
Cattedown Road pumping station overflow, Plymouth	31	28	18	32	26
Shaft 16 pumping station overflow, Plymouth^*	7	20	0	N/A	N/A
Shaft 16 pumping station storm overflow, Plymouth	127	141	102	120	120
Commercial Road/Place storm overflow, Plymouth	0	0	0	0	1
Commercial Road storm overflow, Plymouth	8	0	1	0	0
Dark Street Lane Tank storm overflow, Plympton	30	28	30	26	17
Efford Marsh storm overflow, Plymouth	110	21	59	56	45
Field outside 32 Laira Park Gdn storm overflow, Plymouth	103	112	87	96	75
Forder Valley Road storm overflow, Plymouth	102	67	100	97	92
Garrick Close storm overflow, Plymouth	24	30	23	41	12
Glenholt pumping station overflow, Plymouth	70	89	56	73	87
Harlech Close storm overflow, Plymouth	12	12	12	9	6
Honicknowle Lane storm overflow, Plymouth	11	78	42	82	85
Hooe Lake pumping station overflow, Plymstock	2	3	2	5	17
Hooe Road storm overflow, Plymouth	19	21	14	22	14
Marine Road No1 pumping station overflow, Plymstock	19	12	10	3	19
Market Road storm overflow, Plympton	56	50	34	49	50
Marsh Mills pumping station overflow, Plympton	0	0	0	0	0
Marsh Mills sewage treatment works settled storm overflow, Plympton	98	86	46	74	98
Oreston Quay pumping station overflow, Plymouth	28	49	21	25	60
Plymouth Road / Dingle Road storm overflow, Plympton	84	75	71	70	82
Plymouth Road/Embankment Road storm overflow, Plymouth	1	2	0	4	5
Radford sewage treatment works storm overflow, Plymouth	47	49	61	71	85
Radford sewage treatment works settled storm overflow, Plymouth	6	6	5	14	14
Outside 31A Pike Road storm overflow, Plymouth	83	91	94	102	126
Riverside pumping station overflow, Plymouth	10	11	0	2	10
1 Edna Terrace storm overflow, Plymouth	14	11	10	16	14
Seymour Avenue/Beaumont Road storm overflow, Plymouth	16	22	18	11	19
Seymour Avenue/Salisbury Road storm overflow, Plymouth	16	18	16	23	28
Shirley Gardens storm overflow, Plymouth	0	0	1	1	1
Trefusis Park storm overflow, Plymouth	51	52	42	64	62
Turnchapel Barracks pumping station overflow, Plymouth	37	46	42	28	44
Turnchapel Slipway pumping station overflow, Plymouth	42	29	33	26	14