Come on in, England's bathing waters are fine

LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) The quality of England's bathing water is at its best ever with only two areas failing to reach minimum standards, the government said.

Tests found that 99.5 percent of all coastal and inland bathing waters met the standards required by European law, compared with 98.8 per cent in 2005.

The only two out of 413 that were found to be not up to scratch were Staithes in the northeast and Hampstead Heath Ladies Pond in London.

''This year's results represent the highest compliance with European bathing water standards since monitoring began,'' Environment minister Ian Pearson said.

''The money that has been invested by water companies and others since the 1990s to improve water quality is now showing real results, bringing benefits to the environment, public health and tourism.'' The figures also showed that 75.1 per cent of bathing waters reached tighter ''guideline'' water quality standards -- one of the requirements for a beach achieving ''Blue Flag'' status -- compared with 73.7 per cent last year.

Pearson said work was ongoing to further improve water quality by upgrading sewerage infrastructure and tackling pollution from farms and urban sources.

REUTERS BDP BD1313