Beaches including Bournemouth Pier, Canford Cliffs, Southbourne, Poole Harbour and Studland Knoll Beach are just some of the places in Dorset that have been given the highest grading due to their sea water quality, in the Good Beach Guide 2010.

In the South-West, two-thirds of the beaches in the region, are Marine Conservation Society (MCS) recommended.

However, Lyme Regis is the only beach in the county to fail with poor bathing water quality. Last year it received a basic pass and two years ago, in 2008, it was graded as being a MCS recommended beach. This was because when the waters were tested last year during mid May to September, as they are on all English and Welsh beaches, there were found to be three combined sewer overflows pouring into the sea.

This year, 66 per cent of beaches in the south-west have been rated as MCS recommended, as opposed to 62 per cent last year. The MCS believes that the slight increase in bathing water quality could be due to the marginally lower rainfall experienced in the region in the summer of 2009.

The country, as a whole, also experienced an increase in the amount of MCS recommended beaches. Increasing from 57 per cent last year, the Good Beach Guide has reported that 62 per cent of English beaches are of the highest grading in 2010 and out of 769 beaches in the UK, 421 (54.7 per cent) were graded with the highest mark.

Rachel Wyatt, from the MCS Good Beach Guide, said: “In the last three years, there’s been a shift in the water quality trend on our beaches. From 2001, there was a steady improvement, which peaked in the Good Beach Guide of 2006 when we recommended a record of 505 beaches. Since then, water quality has declined due to high volumes of rain carrying storm pollution from the sewer system, farmland and towns and into the sea.”

Christine Tuckett, Environ-ment Agency bathing water spokeswoman, said: “Bathing water quality around England and Wales have improved dramatically over the past 20 years but we are still constantly looking for new and innovative ways to do more.”