Two popular wild swimming spots on the Isle of Wight and the River Thames could help improve England’s dirty rivers if they win bathing water status, environmentalists hope.

The areas up for consultation are Wolvercote Mill Stream on the River Thames in Oxford and the East Cowes Esplanade on the Isle of Wight’s north coast.

If they win bathing water status, the spots would be monitored regularly during the bathing season – which runs from 15 May to 30 September in England – for harmful bacteria like E.coli.

In January MPs called for each water company in England to designate a stretch of river as bathing water by 2025, to help cleanup a “chemical cocktail” of sewage, slurry and plastic suffocating biodiversity and risking public health.

“Bathing waters in England are a success story, with almost 95% achieving ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ status last year,” said environment minister Rebecca Pow.

“We protect people’s health at popular swimming spots across the country by requiring the water quality at those sites to be regularly monitored and improvements made if they don’t meet the minimum standard,” she said.

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Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, said designating water for bathing can “shine a light on the reality of the shocking water quality in our rivers, lakes and beaches and so be the catalyst for real, systemic change”.

But he said we need to see “hundreds more bathing waters up and down our rivers over the coming years to help drive up the quality of the water we love to play, swim and paddle in”.

The Environmental Audit Committee of MPs said in last month’s water quality report that more assertive regulation and enforcement from Ofwat and the Environment Agency would help restore rivers to good ecological health, protect biodiversity and adapt to a changing climate.

Residents, farmers, businesses and swimming groups can have their say on the plans until 2 March, after which the environment secretary will make the final decision.

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