Glowing report for Britain's beaches

Updated 12.25 Thu May 31 2007

Keywords: Aberafan, EU, beach, Britain, Staithes, Scarborough

Britain's holiday coastline has received a virtual clean bill of health, with 99.6 per cent of them given the all-clear.

This follows years of efforts to meet EU standards for clean bathing water.

The UK also comes close to a total all-clear on freshwater bathing areas - ponds and lakes - with only Hampstead Heath 'ladies pond' spoiling the record

Only two out of 578 individual seaside resort beaches still fail to make the grade - Aberafan in Wales and Staithes near Scarborough - according to the latest annual report on the quality of Europe's shores.

The UK also comes close to a total all-clear on freshwater bathing areas - ponds and lakes - with only Hampstead Heath 'ladies pond' spoiling the record.

Hampstead Heath 'men's pond', according to the latest water cleanliness figures published by the European Commission, makes the grade.

The annual assessment marks all resorts and bathing spots on the basis of EU standards for micobiological contamination set down in a Bathing Water Directive first introduced 30 years ago.

Across the EU member states, the figures for 2006 show that 96 per cent of coastal bathing areas and 89 per cent of bathing sites in rivers and lakes meet or exceed the required standards.