Come on in, the water's fine - it's official.

Research released today shows that bathing water at every one of the beaches in North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire meets Government standards.

And sewage treatment work being carried out at Scarborough and Bridlington should lead to even cleaner bathing water in future.

The announcement comes less than a week after nine out of ten North Yorkshire beaches were given the thumbs-up by the European Union.

Today's findings show that water at Reighton, near Filey, and Tunstall, near Withernsea, is of "outstanding quality".

And those planning to splash about at Whitby, Scarborough, Filey, Bridlington and Whitley Bay next summer can be reassured that water there meets the required standard.

Environment Agency spokesman John Broughton said: "We're delighted by the latest set of results.

"In 1990, just 70 per cent of beaches along the same stretch of coastline came up to the standards set by the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions.

"That shows the kind of sustained improvement that we've seen across the region over the past decade."

And Mr Broughton said improvements in sewage treatment currently taking place along the North and East Yorkshire coastline should further improve water quality in coming years.

"We are now finding lower levels of bacteria in bathing waters mainly due to better sewage treatment," he said.

"However, there will always be natural levels of bacteria around in the environment from animals and birds, so we will never actually reach zero."

The 56 beaches in the Yorkshire and the North East region were monitored between May and September.

Twenty samples were taken at regular intervals.

Of the five beaches in the region which failed to come up to scratch, none were in Yorkshire.