FYLDE Coast beaches are still among the worst-polluted in the country - but campaigners say cleaner seas could be on the way this summer.

This year's Good Beach Guide, drawn up by the Marine Conservation Society, found the whole Fylde shoreline among the 115 worst performing beaches in a survey of 737 nationwide.

"They're still falling very short of the basic bathing water quality standards set 23 years ago," said MCS coastal pollution officer Chris Davis.

But he welcomed North West Water's latest plan to build vast new holding tanks beneath South Shore's main car parks, scheduled to come on stream this summer.

"One of the biggest problems the Fylde Coast has to deal with is the high amount of rainfall," said Mr Davis, "which means that the sewage treatment works become quickly overloaded and divert sewage down short outfalls to the beach.

"Putting it into holding tanks to treat later when the water levels have fallen will help a great deal."

NWWater says it has already spent £2.7bn in wastewater improvements this decade, including a major new sewage treatment plant at Fleetwood and improvements to Clifton Marsh plant.

As a result, acknowledged Mr Davis, "Sewage-related bacteria levels along the Fylde Coast have fallen dramatically from the extremely high levels they were a couple of years ago - although they still failed."

NWWater wastewater director Colin South said: "There's no doubt that bathing waters in the North West are cleaner now than they have been for decades, thanks to the substantial programmes of work we have carried out and the MCS recognises that."

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