WAVES of excitement washed over the Fylde coast this week with the news that a number of Blackpool's beaches are finally up to scratch.

The announcement that Blackpool beaches met with European Union regulations for bathing water raised hopes that the town could finally get an elusive blue flag from the Tidy Britain Group which recognises the country's cleanest and safest beaches.

The Environment Agency took 20 water samples from sites across the coast between May and September this year and found that Blackpool South, Central and North beaches all passed, as did Cleveleys, Fleetwood and St Annes.

Two beaches which failed this year were St Annes North and Bispham. But Councillor Roy Lewis, head of tourism at Blackpool Borough Council, said he was confident this would be rectified in the near future.

He said: "My personal belief is the reason we have some beaches failing is because of contaminated water of some kind coming down the River Ribble and into the Fylde coast.

"Apart from that I think it's great news that we have met with EU standards and after the recent news that we are getting the conferences back things are really looking up for us."

But ex-Mayor Coun Henry Mitchell said hopes for a blue flag could be dashed on the rocks as tests results change all the time.

"I cannot understand how you can be clean at one end of the beach and not at another. When you consider that Bispham has passed the last three years and all of Blackpool has failed shows that the levels can change from day to day."

Anne Goodier from the Environment Agency said water testing is a complicated procedure and it is entirely possible to have differences in the same stretch of bathing water.

"The sea has a number of different discharges coming in and many different currents. The reason some pass one year and fail the next is because it only takes one small change to make the water fail even though it isn't all that different.

"We are pleased that the water is getting better but there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure it isn't a one off. Although it is a step forward it is one of many we need to make."

Pictured is The Citizen's Juliette Wilde testing the water near South Pier.