A total of 55 English beaches have met tough new EU standards to receive Blue Flag awards for their water quality, writes the BBC.
Thanet in Kent won eight awards, while the Isle of Wight, Bournemouth and Poole in Dorset, and Torbay in Devon received four each from the campaign group Keep Britain Tidy.
However, there were 24 fewer beaches awarded Blue Flags this year compared with 2012 due to the much tougher standards required under the new EU Bathing Waters Directive.
Also, for the first time beaches had to advise users where they could obtain real-time information on discharges from nearby combined sewage overflows if it could temporarily affect the quality of bathing water.
Other well-known beaches awarded Blue Flags this year included Central Beach in Skegness, Lincolnshire; Lowestoft South Claremont in Suffolk; Martello Bay at Clacton-on-Sea in Essex; and Whitby in North Yorkshire.
A further 133 beaches in England were rated clean enough to be awarded Seaside Awards – formerly known as Quality Coast Awards – by Keep Britain Tidy.
