According to latest figures, Britain’s beaches are proving to be ever popular – with over 28 million trips to the seaside in Wales and England made by UK residents in 2003. Before you head to the beach this year, you can now log onto our website or order a free poster to see how the waters around Wales and England scrub up.

Every year, we check to see how clean the water is at every designated bathing site across Wales and England. In Wales last year the water at 100 per cent of the designated beaches was clean enough to meet European standards. 86 per cent were clean enough to meet the strictest European standard. In comparison, only 12 per cent of beaches made the grade 14 years ago.

By entering the name of a place, beach or postcode into the "What’s in My Backyard" section of our website (www.environment-agency.gov.uk/maps/) you can instantly see whether the water at your favourite beach has made the standard or not. Beaches where the water has made the grade are marked with either a green or blue symbol and the ones below the required standard are marked red. Water quality data is updated on a weekly basis during May to September. Next week we will be starting the monitoring for 2005.

A map of Wales and England is also available as an A2 size poster and can be obtained by calling the Environment Agency on 0870 8506 506. The free map also has colour-coded symbols to show whether the waters are making the grade. Why not put it on your wall and stick pins in to show the places that you visit?

Environment Agency Wales is also reminding beach-goers that they can do their bit to help makes sure they keep the beach clean and green for everyone else by following five simple rules:

the beach is not a rubbish dump – if you have any rubbish like nappies and cigarette butts, don’t bury it in the sand put it in the bin or bag it and take it home

dogs are not a man’s best friend on the beach – dogs are banned from many beaches between May and September but where they are allowed on, make sure you clean up after them

the sea is not a toilet - if you need the toilet, use ones provided and not the sea

keep the seagulls at bay – don’t feed the seagulls, they carry germs and feeding them will attract them to the beach

report anything unusual to the Environment Agency – if you see anything that looks like it could be pollution, oil or sewage for example, report it to the Environment Agency. Please call the incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60.