Selsey water quality, swimming and sewage
Figures last changed 2 November 2026. House prices for Selsey are on the main Selsey page.
- Storm overflow spills
- 52
- from six overflows within 1.5 km, 2025
- Nearest rated beach
- Excellent
- Selsey, its own
- Rated C or better
- 43%
- of 4,052 homes with a certificate
- Off the gas grid
- 10%
- of homes, on their certificates
Selsey sewage spills
The six monitored storm overflows within 1.5 km of a Selsey postcode spilled 52 times in 2025, for 498 hours in all, on the water companies' returns to the Environment Agency. The busiest was Sidlesham wastewater works, which empties into the Broad Rife: 37 spills and 436 hours. In 2024, the monitored overflows within 1.5 km of a Selsey postcode spilled 86 times, for 980 hours. The Environment Agency put much of the fall across England down to an unusually dry 2025 after a particularly wet 2024. The monitor at the Church Road Selsey storm overflow worked for only 86% of 2025, so its count may be low. The monitor at the East Beach Road Selsey storm overflow worked for only 68% of 2025, so its count may be low. A storm overflow lets diluted sewage out into a river or the sea when heavy rain overloads the sewers. The counts use the Agency's method, in which the first 12 hours of a spill count as one and each 24 hours after that as another.
Source: Environment Agency storm overflow annual returns (Event Duration Monitoring) · Environment Agency: fewer and shorter storm overflow spills in 2025.
Selsey water quality for swimming
Selsey's beach is a designated bathing water, rated Excellent by the Environment Agency for 2025. The next nearest is Pagham, 5.3 km away and rated Good. A rating covers the last four summers of samples, not any one day, and new ratings come out once a year. In the bathing season the Agency also issues a daily pollution risk forecast for Pagham.
How energy efficient are homes in Selsey?
Less efficient than the area as a whole, on their energy performance certificates. Of the 4,052 homes in Selsey with a certificate on the government register, 43% are rated C or better, against 50% across the Chichester council area; the most common rating is D. Mains gas heats 88% of the 4,052 whose main fuel is recorded, and electricity 10%. 28 have a heat pump. Of the 4,038 whose certificate records it, only 10% have no mains gas connection; 14 certificates do not say. 4% have solar panels, and 50 have solar water heating. A certificate is only made when a home is sold, let or built, so homes that rarely change hands are missing, and an old one shows a home as it was then. Each home's latest certificate is used: issued between 2008 and 2026, half of them since 2019.
Source: Energy Performance of Buildings Register (GOV.UK Get energy performance of buildings data).
Water and energy in nearby places
- East Wittering and Bracklesham: No monitored storm overflow lies within 1.5 km of an East Wittering and Bracklesham postcode, on the 2025 returns.
- Birdham: No monitored storm overflow lies within 1.5 km of a Birdham postcode, on the 2025 returns.
- Donnington: Three monitored storm overflows within 1.5 km spilled 70 times in 2025, for 1,022 hours.
- West Wittering: No monitored storm overflow lies within 1.5 km of a West Wittering postcode, on the 2025 returns.
Figures cover 360 postcodes in Selsey. How these figures are made.