A record number of UK bathing beaches receive marine charity’s top water quality award after the driest summer since 2003. Marine Conservation Society recommends hundreds of UK beaches as having excellent water quality for taking a dip.
One of the UK’s driest summers in recent memory has resulted in more bathing beaches than ever being ‘Recommended’ for their excellent water quality in the annual ‘Good Beach Guide’, www.goodbeachguide.co.uk launched online today (Tuesday 15th April 2014) by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS).
MCS has recommended 538 out of 734 (73%) UK beaches tested during last summer as having excellent water quality – that’s 135 more than the previous year. There were also fewer failures, with just fourteen beaches tested last summer failing to reach minimum water quality standards.
In the North East and South East of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland there were no failures at all meaning all of their monitored beaches reached minimum bathing water standards.
MCS Coastal Pollution Officer, Rachel Wyatt, says she hopes the latest figures will be a boost to UK tourism after several previously wet summers which led to a drop in bathing water quality from pollution running into the sea from rural and urban areas and overloaded sewers.
