ALL the bathing spots in East Anglia are clean enough to meet tough European requirements for water quality.The EU operates a two-tier system for water cleanliness, with both 'mandatory' and the stricter 'guideline' standards.

ALL the bathing spots in East Anglia are clean enough to meet tough European requirements for water quality.

The EU operates a two-tier system for water cleanliness, with both 'mandatory' and the stricter 'guideline' standards.

The Environment Agency announced that all designated bathing waters in the Anglian region compiled with the standard, with 32 of the 38 beaches, 84.2%, reaching the stricter guideline standard.

Despite improving on last year's results, which showed only 81.6% of the bathing places met the guideline criteria, the region still needs to work to reach the 2002 European average of 87%.

In Essex, Dovercourt, Frinton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea, Clacton-on-Sea, Jaywick and Brightlingsea all had water quality that reached the guideline status, showing no change from last year.

Walton-on-Sea and the bathing water around groyne 41 at Clacton-on-Sea passed the mandatory standard, matching their results in 2002.

West Mersea in Essex was the only place in East Anglia where the water quality dropped from guideline standard last year to mandatory this year.

In Suffolk, the bathing spots in Gunton Denes in Lowestoft and both north and south of Claremont Pier in the town reached the guideline status along with the pier and The Denes in Southwold and north and south Felixstowe. The water quality at each of the sites had not changed from last year.

John Sweeney, Environment Agency manager, said: "We are obviously pleased with these results, which once again show an improvement on last year.

"The local councils, Anglian Water and the Environment Agency have all worked hard together to achieve these high standards.

"We hope this news will provide an important boost to the region's tourist economy and further improve public confidence in the cleanliness of our bathing waters."

The water quality is tested by taking 20 samples at regular intervals throughout the bathing season, which runs from May 15 to September 30, at the most popular spots for swimming and paddling.

A record 98.4% of UK beaches and inland bathing areas met European Union quality standards this year.

English bathing areas achieved a best-ever 98.8% pass rate, while Northern Ireland got a perfect score of 100% clean beaches, it was revealed.

Results released earlier this year showed a pass rate of 98.7% in Wales and 94.8% in Scotland.

And almost three-quarters of English beaches met the tighter guidelines allowing them to fly the Blue Flag as a mark of high-quality bathing water.