Twenty-five beaches in England may fail to meet tough new EU standards for bathing water quality that come into force on Friday.

Water at the 417 bathing spots monitored by the Environment Agency (EA) in 2014 was cleaner than ever recorded, with 99.5% meeting standards for intestinal enterococci and E. coli, faecal bacteria that cause eye and ear infections and gastroenteritis. In 1988, a third of swimming spots failed the tests.

But the data published by the EA on Friday show that authorities will have to redouble efforts to make all public swimming areas safe under the revised EU Bathing Water Directive, which comes into force this summer bathing season.

Beaches including Blackpool Central and North, Clacton, Ilfracombe Wildersmouth, Hastings, Lyme Regis Church Cliff Beach, Morecambe South, Lancing and Walpole Bay at Margate are among those predicted to fall foul of the stricter rules this summer.

The new European standards will cut acceptable levels of harmful bacteria in half. The change will bring the UK’ standards, which have stayed the same since the late 1970s, in line with advice from the World Heath Organisation.

Failure to meet standards will mean warning signs must be erected, potentially harming tourism, and action must be taken to improve the water quality.

The weather is also a major factor in how many beaches will fail or pass, with wet summers causing pollution to peak.

Untreated sewage and waste from farm animals is washed in the sea and other waterways during periods of heavy rain, when sewage outflows are overtopped. Further, domestic toilet systems are often connected directly to storm water drains, without passing through the sewage system.

Since 1990, water companies have invested £2bn on improvements to the nation’s sewage systems to protect the aquatic environment.



The EA said last year it had predicted 50 spots would fail, indicating its efforts to solve the problem were working. But Ed Mitchell, EA executive director of environment and business, said further upgrades were required.

“Water quality at English beaches is better than it’s ever been after it reached record levels last year, and we are working hard with others to improve it further still,” he said.

The EA told the Guardian last year that many of the large infrastructure improvements required were now complete and the job of making house-to-house improvements may prove more difficult in order to eradicate health concerns for all bathers.

Water companies will invest £350m in upgrading 3,728 miles of river and 50 bathing spots over the next five years. Swimmers can check the daily levels of bacteria at their favourite spots on the EA’s bathing water quality website.

Dr Laura Foster, pollution manager at the Marine Conservation Society said: “Over the last four years we have seen a decreasing number of beaches predicted to fail the new bathing water directive. The directive ... is roughly twice as stringent as the previous directive which used research from the 1970s.

“We have been delighted to see that the number of beaches predicted to fail has significantly decreased over the last few years on the back of improvements and investment into water quality, but there is still more to be done at a number of beaches.”



The beaches expected to fail new EU bathing water standards

Allonby

Blackpool Central

Blackpool North

Budleigh Salterton

Burnham Jetty North

Clacton (Groyne 41)

Cleveleys

Fleetwood

Hastings

Haverigg

Henleaze Lake

Ilfracombe Wildersmouth

Instow

Lancing, Beach Green

Lyme Regis Church Cliff Beach

Morecambe South

Mothecombe

Porth

Porthluney

Seaton (Cornwall)

Silloth

Spittal

Staithes

Teignmouth Town

Walpole Bay, Margate