These results will probably do more to help the regeneration of coastal resorts by improving the reputation of beaches than any other single investment

Michael Meacher, Environment Minister

All the beaches along the Fylde Coast, including Blackpool, now meet those standards for the first time.

Pollution in this area had been so bad that the EU was taking the UK to court. That action has now been dropped, saving the taxpayer about �70,000 a day in legal costs.

Environment minister Michael Meacher said: "These results will probably do more to help the regeneration of coastal resorts by improving the reputation of beaches than any other single investment.

"The UK coastal bathing water quality results were also the best ever.

Regional variation

"There were 546 UK coastal bathing waters sampled this year; 95% passed and that was slightly up on last year which was 94%."

Mr Meacher said that Britain had a European Court of Justice judgment outstanding because of a failure to comply in 1996/97.

He said: "We will do our best to contest this, but the dramatic improvements since then will not be taken into account by the Court of Justice."

He said more needed to be done, but he thought achieving 100% compliance was "probably impossible".

Statistics show there is still wide regional variation, with one in eight beaches in Northwest England still breaking EU rules, while the North East shows a 100% pass rate.

Investment totalling �600m in England and Wales is committed up to 2005.

It will fund further clean-up improvements and will be targeted at more than 100 sewage treatment works and several hundred storm overflows.