Wet summers have been blamed for only half of Britain's beaches reaching the standards for clean water in the Marine Conservation Society's (MCS) annual Good Beach Guide.
This year, more of Britain's beaches made it into the Good Beach Guide - 421 were recommended in 2010, up from 388 in 2009 - but that is still only 55 per cent of the UK's bathing beaches.
'In the last three years there's been a shift in the water quality trend on our beaches,' said Rachel Wyatt from the MCS Good Beach Guide. 'From 2001 there was a steady improvement, which peaked in the Good Beach Guide of 2006 when we recommended a record 505 beaches. Since then, water quality has declined due to high volumes of rain carrying storm pollution from the sewer system, farmland and towns into the sea. The regional pattern to this rainfall means that some regions such as North West England and Scotland faired worse in this year's guide whereas others like the Channel Isles did markedly better.'
