Campsite Legionella and Water Safety: A Practical Guide

Ask most campsite owners about legionella and you will get a slightly nervous look, followed by something like "isn't that a hotel thing?" It isn't. A legionella risk assessment is a legal duty for any UK campsite with a shower block, a water tank, a static caravan supply, or even a hose that sits full of water for weeks at a time. Warm, still water is exactly what Legionella bacteria like, and a lot of touring sites and CLs tick more of those boxes than owners realise. The good news is that once you understand what you are actually checking for, keeping on top of it is straightforward and does not need to eat into your season.

Why campsites carry more legionella risk than owners expect

Legionella bacteria are naturally present in most water sources at very low levels. They only become a problem when conditions let them multiply: water sitting between roughly 20 and 45 degrees Celsius, stagnation in pipework that is not used regularly, scale or sludge building up in tanks and shower heads, and then a way for contaminated water to become a fine spray that someone can breathe in, like a shower head or hose nozzle.

A campsite ticks a surprising number of those boxes without anyone intending it to. A shower block that gets heavy use at weekends and almost nothing midweek has pipework that sits still for days. A site that closes for winter has an entire water system standing idle for months before reopening. A hook up point at the far end of a field that only one or two guests use all season is exactly the kind of rarely used outlet that guidance singles out as higher risk. None of this means your site is dangerous. It means the risk needs managing properly rather than ignored because "we're only small."

What a legionella risk assessment actually covers

The starting point is the HSE's Approved Code of Practice, generally known as ACOP L8, which sets out what a written scheme should include. For a campsite, that means:

• A written description of your water system, including tanks, calorifiers, shower blocks, standpipes and any hose reels or wash points
• An assessment of where the risk factors above actually apply on your site, rather than a generic template that does not reflect your layout
• A named responsible person who owns the assessment and makes sure the checks happen
• A schedule of the checks needed, how often, and who does them
• A record of what has actually been done, with dates

You do not need a specialist consultant for a small site with a straightforward mains fed system, though it is worth getting a professional in if you have a calorifier, a large tank, or anything unusual about your water supply. Many CL and CS owners can complete a sound assessment themselves once they know the framework, and it is far better to have a slightly plain one written down than a perfect one that only exists in your head.

Keeping shower blocks and water systems safe day to day

Once the assessment is written, the ongoing work is mostly routine and takes minutes rather than hours:

• Flush any outlet that has not been used for a week or more, running it for at least five minutes so stagnant water is cleared
• Check hot water reaches at least 50 degrees at the outlet within a minute of running, and cold water stays below 20 degrees within two minutes
• Descale shower heads and taps regularly, since limescale and sediment give bacteria somewhere to shelter
• Inspect and clean water tanks at least annually, and keep lids properly fitted so debris and insects cannot get in
• Insulate pipework where it runs somewhere very cold or very warm, since temperature swings encourage the conditions bacteria need
• Take showers and taps out of use properly if they are broken, rather than leaving them connected but unused for the rest of the season

If your site closes over winter, pay particular attention to reopening. A water system that has sat idle for four or five months needs a proper flush through and a temperature check before the first guest ever turns a tap on. Our campsite winterising checklist covers the shutdown side of this in more detail, and the two jobs sit naturally together on your calendar.

What inspectors and insurers actually want to see

If your council, your insurer, or a guest ever asks about water safety, they are not looking for a perfect system. They are looking for evidence that you have thought about the risk and are managing it consistently. That means being able to produce, without a scramble:

• Your written risk assessment, dated and reviewed periodically
• A log of flushing, temperature checks and tank inspections, with actual dates rather than "we do this regularly"
• Clear ownership, so it is obvious who is responsible if something needs following up

This is exactly the sort of recurring job that is easy to intend and easy to forget once the season gets busy. Building it into a proper checklist system, rather than a note on a whiteboard in the shower block, makes a real difference. CampSuite's tasks and job sheets feature lets you set up recurring water safety checks with photo proof attached, so the record exists automatically instead of depending on someone remembering to write it down after a long Saturday.

Common mistakes at CL and CS sites

Most of the problems I come across are not about bad practice. They are about assumptions that turn out to be wrong:

• Assuming a small site or a single shower block means the rules do not apply. They apply to any site with a water system, regardless of size
• Never writing the assessment down, so there is nothing to show if it is ever asked for
• Forgetting the standpipe or tap that only one pitch uses, which is often the highest risk point on the whole site
• Not thinking about hosepipes lent to guests, which can sit full of warm water in a shed between visitors
• Treating it as a one-off job done when the site opened, rather than something reviewed each season

If you run a CL site or a CS site with shared facilities, the same principles apply whether you have five pitches or fifty. The scale of the paperwork should match the scale of your site, but the duty itself does not disappear because you are small.

Building water safety into your routine, not just a tick box

The sites that manage this well are not the ones with the thickest binder of paperwork. They are the ones where flushing an unused tap or checking a tank lid has become as automatic as locking the gate at night. That usually comes down to having a simple system that prompts the check, rather than relying on memory during your busiest months.

If you are still running your site from a notebook or a paper diary, this is one of the easiest wins from moving to something digital. A recurring task that reminds you to flush the far standpipe every week, or check the shower block temperature after a quiet spell, costs nothing to set up and saves you from exactly the kind of oversight that causes problems later. You can try CampSuite free and have your water safety checks scheduled alongside your bookings and guest arrivals in the same afternoon.

The key takeaway

Legionella and water safety are not complicated once you strip away the jargon. Understand where warm, still water sits on your site, write down a proper assessment, flush and check the outlets that see the least use, and keep a record of what you have actually done. Do that consistently and you protect your guests, your business, and yourself from a risk that is genuinely easy to manage, once someone is actually managing it.