UK holiday beaches given thumbs up

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After years of efforts to meet EU standards for clean bathing water, 99.6% of the nation's beaches are given the all-clear in the latest annual report on the quality of Europe's shores.

Where once Blackpool's Golden Mile was shamed amongst dozens of spots failing to meet EU standards for healthy swimming, only two out of 578 individual seaside resort beaches still fail to make the grade - Aberafan in Wales and Staithes, Scarborough.

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% of coastal bathing areas and 89% of bathing sites in rivers and lakes meet or exceed the required standards.

EU environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said he was pleased with the results but voiced concern that some countries had removed some beaches from their official national lists - raising questions about whether the tactic is designed to avoid recording a cleanliness failure.

This year the UK authorities "de-listed" Blackpool Central beach and Newhaven.

Mr Dimas commented: "Despite these encouraging results I am very concerned by the number of bathing sites withdrawn from the list. Removing sites from the list because they are polluted is not a solution. Member states must instead draw up plans for cleaning up these polluted sites".