16 People Report E. coli Issues After Sea Swimming at Hythe, Dymchurch and Littlestone

Something deeply worrying has been landing in The Shepway Vox Team inbox.

Between 1 July and 12 August 2026, 16 people contacted us after swimming in the sea at Hythe, Littlestone beach, Dymchurch and Granville Parade. Every one of them tells us they subsequently required antibiotics. More disturbing still, all 16 say E. coli was identified in their urine samples.

Let’s be absolutely clear from the outset. That doesn’t prove the sea caused these infections. A urine culture showing E. coli doesn’t establish where the bacterium came from, and without microbiological source-tracing it would be wrong to claim otherwise.

But sixteen people reporting illness, antibiotic treatment and E. coli over roughly six weeks is something we simply can’t shrug off.

One account is particularly troubling.

In mid-July, a family who have swum near Hythe Sailing Club for many years went swimming in the sea there. Their son was visiting at the time and subsequently developed an infection. Before travelling abroad a couple of weeks later, he was prescribed Nitrofurantoin — first a ten-day course and then a further seven-day course.

It didn’t end there.

After travelling abroad he attended a urology clinic and was prescribed different antibiotics. Meanwhile, another member of the family has also required repeated treatment which, they tell us, hasn’t resolved the problem.

They’re now asking an obvious and rather frightening question: did they pick something up while swimming in the sea, given the well-documented history of sewage discharges, faecal contamination and other pollution along this coastline?

Nitrofurantoin is commonly used for lower urinary tract infections. The NHS explains that it becomes concentrated in urine, which makes it useful against infections there, but also says it won’t work for other types of infection.

The family has consequently raised with their GP whether another organism associated with water exposure could conceivably be involved, including bacteria such as Aeromonas or Vibrio. There’s currently no evidence supplied to The Shepway Vox that either organism has been found in any of these 16 people, and nobody should read this article as saying otherwise.

Nevertheless, concern about bacteria in bathing water certainly isn’t some wild internet theory.

The Environment Agency samples designated bathing waters for E. coli and intestinal enterococci because they indicate faecal contamination and the possible presence of germs capable of making people ill. It stresses that contamination can come from several sources, including sewage, wildlife, pets and farm animals.

And there’s another uncomfortable fact.

The council’s current beach information says Littlestone beach is rated Poor and bathing isn’t advised. Dymchurch is also rated Poor and bathing isn’t advised. By contrast, Hythe currently carries an Excellent annual classification.

But “Excellent” shouldn’t be misunderstood as a guarantee that the water will be clean every hour of every day. Environment Agency classifications use four years of sampling data, precisely because bathing-water quality changes. Rainfall, wind, tides and pollution incidents can temporarily alter conditions.

That distinction matters enormously when people are actually becoming ill.

There’s another uncomfortable part of this story. On 1 April, councillors backed Cllr Tony Hills’ (pictured) motion on independent water testing across Romney Marsh and the East Stour. And let’s not forget the obvious: the rivers, drains and sewers across the Marsh ultimately discharge towards the sea, so what happens inland doesn’t simply stay inland. During the debate, the motion was strengthened so Cabinet would first investigate commissioning an independent report to identify the relevant watercourses and the best sampling locations the Environment Agency would consider valid, before officers produced costed options for a targeted testing programme the Agency would accept.

Yet nearly five months after the proposal first came forward, there’s precious little sign of boots hitting the ground. The motion was being publicly discussed by 24 March, but FHDC’s 28 July Overview and Scrutiny work programme still showed the water-testing motion as “TBC”, with no executive update or action recorded. We can find no published procurement notice showing that the independent work has been commissioned.

And that matters rather more now.

Sixteen people are telling us they became ill after swimming and needed antibiotics. Talking about testing is one thing. Getting water into sample bottles and laboratories is quite another.

Nor does finding E. coli in somebody’s urine prove that the E. coli detected in bathing-water monitoring caused their infection. There are many strains and routes of infection. What we’ve got at the moment is a cluster of reports, not a proven chain of transmission.

But it’s a cluster that deserves attention.

Sixteen people. Four stretches of coastline. Repeated courses of antibiotics. And, according to every person who’s contacted us, E. coli showing up in every urine sample.

National health advice says that anybody becoming ill after swimming should seek medical help and specifically tell the clinician that they’ve been swimming in open water.

That seems particularly sensible here.

Because if these 16 cases are coincidence, proper investigation ought to establish that.

And if they’re not, people paddling out into the sea deserve to know exactly what they’re swimming in.

If you’ve experienced illness or an infection after swimming in the sea and subsequently needed antibiotics, please do get in touch with us at TheShepwayVoxTeam@proton.me.

All correspondence will be treated in the strictest confidence.

The Shepway Vox Team

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