ABSTRACT
The 1975 Bathing Water Directive 76/160 (see p 265, below) is concerned with protecting human health and the environment. Bathing water is defined (Art 1) as ‘those fresh or sea waters in which bathing is either explicitly authorised ... or is not prohibited and is traditionally practised by large numbers of bathers’. Great care was taken in arriving at this definition, not least because Member States will be in breach of the Directive if they fail to designate bathing waters which satisfy the Directive criteria. Nonetheless, it has been accepted by the Commission that the phrase ‘traditionally practised by a large number of bathers’ is not easy to apply in practice. For an application of this definition see Moase and Another v Secretary of State for the the Environment, Transport and the Regions [2000] JPL 746 and p 336, below).
