The Anti-litter charity Keep Britain Tidy has announced that this year Yorkshire has 17 award-winning beaches, including five which have been awarded the prestigious Blue Flag which recognises those coastal destinations with the highest standards of water quality, cleanliness, safety and environmental management.

Many of the region's other beaches were also very highly rated, with 15 of them receiving Quality Coast Awards (QCAs) which recognise and reward beaches that achieve the highest standards of beach management. Among the 15 are Bridlington North and South, Barmston, and Fraisthorpe in East Yorkshire and Robin Hoods Bay, Sandsend and Runswick Bay in North Yorkshire - giving Yorkshire a higher concentration of QCAs than any other region in the UK.

The announcement endorses the ongoing work and efforts of the multi-agency partnership launched last November, which aims to give Yorkshire's bathing waters the best chance possible of achieving the new "excellent" standard due to come into force in 2015 as part of the European revised Bathing Water Directive.

Yorkshire Water investing £110M to upgrade east coast waste water facilities

Consisting of Yorkshire Water, the Environment Agency, Welcome To Yorkshire, Scarborough Borough Council, the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, North Yorkshire County Council, the Rural Affairs Forum and Defra, the partnership is working to try and achieve eight blue flags along Yorkshire's 50 mile coastline by 2015, with detailed investigations already underway.

Lee Pitcher, Bathing Water Strategy Manager at Yorkshire Water - which is investing £110m as part of the partnership to upgrade their waste water facilities on the east coast - said:

"It's a fantastic endorsement for Yorkshire to be able to say that it boasts some of the best beaches in the world, with the number of Blue Flags on the East Coast now rising to a commendable five.

"But we want more and that's why as a partnership group we're committed to working together to further improve Yorkshire's iconic coast with the ultimate aim of hopefully achieving one Blue Flag at each of the region's eight coastal resorts."

David Dangerfield, Regional Director for the Environment Agency, said the partnership would be working to improve them even further, taking positive steps to reduce pollution so the standards they will be measured on in four years time could be met.

Darren Stevens, Head of Culture at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said that

“Yorkshire Water has set aside £110m to improve waste water facilities on the east coast and, by working together, the partnership is confident of achieving this target before the revised bathing water directive comes into effect in 2015.”