SWIMMING beaches in the South Hams are top notch, it has been announced this week.

According to the Environment Agency, after monitoring the water quality between May 1, and September 30, the South West has the best quality bathing water for seven years.

Out of 145 designated bathing waters sampled in the South West Water region, covering Devon, Cornwall and Lyme Regis in Dorset, 144 or 99.3 percent met or exceeded the minimum European water quality standard and 132 or 91 percent met the tighter guideline standard.

17 beaches in the South Hams are classed as these 'bathing water beaches' by DEFRA, including popular beaches such as Bantham, Bigbury-on-sea, Mothecombe, Slapton Sands, Thurlestone and Blackpool Sands, who have all passed the water quality test with high marks.

16 of the 17 were given an excellent rating, except the beach at Dartmouth Castle and Sugary Cove which Environment Agency teams could not sample since it was temporarily closed following repairs to access steps.

This is a significant improvement on last year's results, when 133 or 91 percent met the minimum standard and 91 or 62 percent met guideline. The South West holds 30 percent of the bathing waters in England and Wales. Of the 63 bathing waters sampled in Devon and Dorset, 62 or 98.4 percent met the minimum European water quality standard and 55 or 87.3 percent met the tighter guideline standard.

Cllr John Tucker, leader of South Hams Council, said: 'This is really good news for the tourist industry. Hopefully this will inspire more families to make these wonderful seascapes a 'must visit' destination in future.

'We are very proud of our beaches in the South Hams and you will need to travel a long way before you find such wonderful examples as we have here.'

Robin Toogood, South Devon AONB manager, said: 'It's good to see our bathing water quality back on track with 'excellent' gradings across the board again.

'Heavy rain last year caused a real challenge for bathing waters all over the country in 2012, but these 2013 results reflect the underlying pattern that South Hams beaches are perfect places for swimming and water sports.'

Earlier this year SWW announced that it will spend up to £20 million on a range of schemes to improve bathing water quality at a selection of beaches across the South West, including Mothecombe.

This is in preparation for the more stringent standards of the European Union's revised bathing water directive, which comes into force in 2015. SWW say that the investment up to 2015 will be financed from the company's own resources and will not impact on the average household regional bill.

A spokesperson for SWW said: 'In our business plan for the next five-year investment period, which will be submitted to Ofwat next month, we are proposing to invest an additional £44 million on maintaining bathing water quality between 2015 and 2020, while keeping bill increases well below the rate of inflation.

'The company is also working closely with other organisations and local communities to prepare for the revised directive.'

Stephen Bird, SWW operations director, said: 'We are very pleased with this year's results, particularly after last year's wet summer.

 'Our priority now is to continue preparing for the revised bathing water directive and we will be investing a further £20 million at key beaches over the next 18 months.

'But we can't do it alone. Bathing water is affected by urban drainage, agricultural run-off, birds and other wildlife, private sewers and misconnections – homes wrongly connected to surface water drainage instead of public foul sewers – as well as South West Water's infrastructure.

'That's why it's important that we continue to work with other organisations and local communities to tackle all these factors so that residents and visitors alike can continue to enjoy our beautiful beaches.'