Work to find out why Worthing's sea water failed European Union quality tests is set to carry on.

During 2002, bathing water between Splash Point and the Lido failed two out of 20 cleanliness tests.

The tests are important to seaside towns because a high rating can lead to awards and attract tourists.

Worthing's failures meant it was classed as having poor quality seawater for the 2002 season.

It was the only bathing beach within the Southern Water region not to meet EU mandatory standards and was not eligible for a prestigious Blue Flag safety award.

Peter Green, the town's environment executive, is tomorrow expected to agree that Worthing Borough Council officers should persevere with Southern Water and the Environment Agency to identify what caused the failures.

The town's seawater had passed European safety standards for the previous six years.

A council report says: "The Environment Agency's investigations are not complete but the interim report states Southern Water Services experienced no operational failures and no storm or emergency overflows around the dates the failures were recorded.

"The interim report goes on to list the following possible causes for the problems:

Foul connection or blockages overflowing to surface water drains in the vicinity of the sampling point;

contaminated highway run-off; or storm discharges from Marine Gardens or Grafton car park water pumping stations."