25% fewer beaches make the grade

By Mike McKimm
BBC NI environment correspondent

WHERE THE WATER'S GOOD UK beaches: The full list Map of regional performances

The number of recommended beaches in Northern Ireland has dropped by almost a quarter in a water quality survey.

The latest Good Beach Guide, carried out by the Marine Conservation Society said Ballyhome, Carnlough and Newcastle failed to make the minimum standard.

Others like Helen's Bay, recommended last year, just scraped through.

The Department of Regional Development were hoping the steady increase in the standard of NI sewage treatment works would lead to cleaner beaches.

But as we clean up our waste water, it reveals other underlying problems.

Those include animal waste being washed from the fields into our streams and rivers and then into the sea and also from the tens of thousands of septic tanks, many of which do not work properly.

And that is not a problem we are going to solve overnight.

The Marine Conservation Society recommendations are one of five UK awards and is the only scheme which focuses entirely on water quality.

The water at Ballyholme beach failed to meet the minimum standard

The beaches are categorised as failing if they fail the EC statutory minimum, "pass" if they pass it, "guideline" if their water quality is good and are awarded an MSC recommendation where the water quality is high and there is good sewage treatment.

Blue Flags, another beach award, assesses how well the beach is managed and its amenities.

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Mike McKimm reports from a beach in County Down which failed to make the grade