A total of 97% of England’s bathing waters passed the minimum tougher standard this year established by the EU Bathing Water Directive - with 63.6% of bathing waters in total meeting the new Excellent standard.

The results reflect a major improvement in performance compared to 1990 when just 27% met strict water quality standards.

Commenting on the results, Dr Pete Fox, Director of Land & Water at 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. The Environment Agency has led successful work to monitor, investigate and reduce pollution, which has benefited the environment and people with nearly all of England’s beaches 97% meeting the new stringent water quality standards.”

“The Environment Agency will continue to encourage water companies, local authorities, farmers, and businesses to work together to maintain and improve water quality.”

The results are based on samples taken by the Environment Agency over the last four years. Information about each beach is available on the Bathing Water Explorer website. The Environment Agency closely monitors the quality of bathing waters and carries out regular testing and inspections. It also works closely with local partners and others to identify pollution sources and take action to protect and improve bathing water quality across the country.

Actions to improve bathing water include:

• All of Blackpool’s three beaches have met the new tougher standards - with one achieving the highest standard of ‘Excellent’. United Utilities is investing £100 million to improve the water quality along the Blackpool coastline by 2020.
• The bathing water quality at Hastings Pelham beach has improved dramatically from ‘poor’ last year to ‘good’ in 2015. Southern Water has invested £3m to investigate and fix uncapped manholes and identify misconnections in pipes. Extensive planting has taken place to cut pollution into Alexandra Park Stream by filtering bacteria and diverting pollution through ponds with floating islands.

The UK water companies have invested over £2.5 billion to improve bathing waters since privatisation.

Commenting on the results for the North East region, Northumbrian Water’s Wastewater Director, Richard Warneford, said:

"Our £1 billion of investment over the last two decades is reflected in today’s results, which are in stark contrast to those in 2000, when only four of the bathing waters in the North East achieved the old guideline standard.”

"It is worth bearing in mind that the bathing water results in 2012, when our region experienced one of the wettest years in 100 years, are reflected in this year’s results. We are certainly not complacent and have already carried out work, or have plans in place, to improve the bathing water quality at locations that have achieved either a sufficient or poor status this year."

Spittal is the only bathing water in the region to be classified as poor - bathing water quality at Spittal is impacted by many sources, including pollution from the River Tweed. Further investigation work is to be carried out to understand the cost of required work to improve the water quality status to sufficient.

The water company is also planning to identify sources of pollution affecting the eight bathing waters in Seaton Carew, Redcar and Marske. This work will be completed in 2017.

Click here to download Bathing waters in England: 2015 compliance report