Porthminster Beach is a crescent of golden sand - barely a minutes’ walk away from the train station. This is without doubt one of Cornwall's finest beaches. The beach is backed by a sloping grassy hillside dotted with elegant Edwardian villas. To one side is a wooded headland, around which lies Carbis Bay. To the other side is St Ives Harbour. When the tide is low Porthminster joins up with the Harbour beach forming a great expanse of beach.
Porthminster is an excellent family beach and has been rewarded as such with consistent Blue Flag awards. The sheltered aspect means it is safe to generally safe to swim here and there is also a summer lifeguard service on the beach.
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.
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.
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’.
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.
2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Westcots Quay Tank storm overflow, St Ives | 1 | 5 | 7 | 6 |
The beach profiles were created in line with information provided by our partners, Environment Agency, RNLI, Keep Britain Tidy, MCS - Beach Guide and British Beaches.