The Isle of Sheppey has scored a holiday hat-trick.

The quality of its sea water at each of its three main bathing beaches has been rated "excellent" by the Environment Agency.

Despite other Kent beaches including Whitstable and Thanet being polluted by sewage last year, Sheerness, Minster Leas and Leysdown all scored top marks, putting them a step nearer to winning a coveted Blue Flag.

Minster and Sheerness have both held the "excellent" rating for five years. Leysdown has won the honour for two.

Cllr Julian Saunders (Lab, St Ann's), Swale council's cabinet member for the environment, said: “We’re really proud of our beaches.

"The iconic Blue Flag is one of the world’s most recognised awards. We have to meet a series of stringent environmental, educational, safety, and accessibility criteria to qualify. Achieving this excellent water quality rating gets us one step closer to achieving it."

Cllr Monique Bonney (Ind, West Downs), cabinet member for economy and property, said: "We’ve worked closely with Southern Water and the Environment Agency to maintain our excellent bathing water quality at our award-winning bathing beaches."

The council is part of Southern Water’s bathing water enhancement programme which investigates any possible sources of pollution.

It also sends real-time information about the water quality of its beaches to the Beachbuoy scheme which sends out alerts on possible sewage releases.

Cllr Bonney added: "We also enforce dog restrictions between May and October and carry out daily beach cleaning."

More than 30 tests are carried out on the water at more than 400 English beaches between May and September every year.