England bathing waters improving, Defra claims

The water quality at Blackpool's three beaches have improved according to DEFRA

More than 60% of England's bathing spots have excellent water quality according to latest figures.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Environment Agency have assessed the water at 415 swimming spots with 97% passing the minimum standard.

Although not directly comparable with previous years due to the introduction of new EU standards, Defra said the figures show a continued improvement.

Twelve spots were judged as poor.

The figures are based on water samples taken from each site over the last four years.

Dr Pete Fox from the Environment Agency said: "Water quality at beaches is better than any time in living memory, with dramatic improvements having been made over the last few decades.

Beaches along the North East coast have also been ranked well with 30 of the region's 34 bathing spots ranked either good or excellent

Teignmouth beach in Devon has seen a big improvement after bird droppings were identified as being the main pollutant, Defra said, so anti-roosting measures were installed on the pier.

In the North East, 30 of the region's 34 bathing spots were assessed to be either good or excellent including beaches at Bamburgh Castle, Tynemouth and Redcar.

Only one beach, Spittal at Berwick, was found to be poor with Northumbrian Water blaming pollution from the River Tweed.

The company said an investigation is under way to see how it can be improved.

Blackpool has also seen an improvement with one of its three beaches being rated excellent due to measures including preventing donkey and starling droppings polluting the beach, and sewers being fixed.

Environment Minister Rory Stewart: "We continue working to further improve the quality of our water, and last year our coast was the cleanest it has ever been.

"I want Britain's beaches, seas and lakes to have the cleanest water in the world."