Yorkshire beaches among Britain’s best as water quality levels rise

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) revealed today that efforts to dramatically improve bathing waters were beginning to pay dividends.

Across the UK, 461 beaches were given the top “recommended” award for excellent bathing water quality, the third highest number in the 24-year history of the MCS’s Good Beach Guide. Some 42 more bathing spots reached the top grade in 2011 than in 2010.

But 46 failed to meet even the basic standards of water quality set in European law 35 years ago, a slight increase on last year’s figure of 41.

And as stricter standards come into force from 2015 – but being monitored from next year – the society raised concerns that almost double the number of beaches could fail in the future.

Improvements spearheaded by Yorkshire Water have led to the region’s beaches being ranked among the best nationally.

Out of the 64 beaches sampled in the North-East region, a total of 45 – 70 per cent – were given the recommended status, with only two failing at Staithes and Saltburn.

The remaining 17 of the region’s beaches were given at the very least a basic pass.

The South-West ranked top with 76 per cent of its 193 beaches recommended by the MCS, while the Channel Islands had 72 per cent of its 21 beaches in the highest category.

Blackpool’s south and central beaches, St Andrews’ east sands, the beach at Aberdyfi, Gwynedd, Wales, and Lyme Regis’s church beach were among the coastal stretches that failed the current tests for water quality.

Yorkshire Water is undertaking a five-year, £110m programme to ensure bathing waters achieve a new “excellent” standard due to come into force in 2015 as part of a new European directive.