THE quality of bathing water at beaches throughout the region has continued to improve over the past year, according to the latest test results.

All the bathing beaches in the North-East and Yorkshire met the mandatory requirements set down in the European Bathing Water Directive.

And the vast majority reached the directive’s higher “guideline” standard, according to the Environment Agency.

The tests were carried out at each of the beaches on a weekly basis throughout the 2013 bathing season.

Across Yorkshire and the North-East all 54 beaches reached the minimum standard and 46 of those met with the higher standard.

That beat the previous year’s figures when four beaches failed to reach the minimum level and only 22 met the higher guideline – a dip that was attributed to repeated heavy rainfall.

Regional environmental planning manager Trevor Hardy said: “We have some fabulous beaches here and these results will give residents and visitors real confidence that water quality is good and getting better.

“The Environment Agency has been working hard to reduce discharges, agricultural run-off and cross connections that can have a detrimental effect on water quality, and combined with the fact that this year has been much drier than 2012, we have seen one of the best set of results in twenty years.”

He added: “The positive results reflect a trend of improvement over the past two decades.

“However, meeting tough new water quality targets is a huge challenge in which everyone – from local government to industry and local communities – has a part to play.”

Nationally, 99 per cent of beaches met the mandatory standards - 410 beaches out of 415 tested, and 82 per cent achieved the higher standard. That pass rate is an improvement on 2012, when 93 per cent of the nation’s beaches reached the minimum level.

Environment Agency chairman Lord Chris Smith said: “The improvement in the quality of UK bathing waters this year is really good news, but with much stricter standards coming into force in 2015, we cannot afford to be complacent.

“The Environment Agency is working hard with local authorities, businesses and water companies to ensure that bathing waters meet the new standards, and the seaside tourist economy in England continues to thrive.”

The full results can be seen at http://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/explorer/index.html.