Guernsey bathing water quality improved last year

Guernsey's bathing water quality has been on an "upward trend" for several years

The quality of Guernsey's bathing water improved last year continuing an "upward trend", according to the States of Guernsey.

Inspectors check 13 beaches around the island for harmful bacteria once a week over the summer, with the beaches being rated based on the last four years' readings.

All but one of Guernsey's beaches was rated as "excellent" or "good", with the remaining being rated "satisfactory".

Environmental health said water quality can be affected by many factors including "weather, pollution, marine litter and microplastics" and can change "over the course of a day".

It said water quality could affect marine life as well as "people’s day at the beach".

Although not an EU member, Guernsey follows the union's bathing water legislation as best practice and the rankings are based on the EU's scale of "poor" to "excellent".

Since Guernsey first calculated the four-year record in 2017, six beaches have improved while no beaches have been classed as "poor" in the past five years.

The States said it expected to publish the results of the first weekly samples for 2024 soon.