'Filthy rivers' protest by wild swimmers in Nidd at Knaresborough as controversy over water quality grows

Alice Blatchford and Adam Harper from Boroughbridge took to the waters of the Nidd at Knaresborough Lido on Saturday – despite their own experience of health issues with river water.

The swim was part of the call to action to get people recorded as using the River Nidd for swimming and win the current application for bathing water status.

Although the campaign is backed strongly by Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, the swimmers say they have experience of health problems and have a clear idea of whose door the fault for “filthy rivers” lies at.

"We are wild swimmers and regularly swim in lakes and ponds in the county,” said Alice who paused during the swim at the Lido to brandish a banner with blunt message.

"But this is the first time we have swam in the Nidd since Adam was 18, being put off because of the number of teenagers I know who became unwell after swimming at the Scotton Banks footbridge.

"We wanted to highlight the Government’s culpability in the dreadful state of the Nidd.

"Andrew Jones has previously voted for cuts to The Environment Agency budget.

"Only last week his Government removed house builders’ obligations to not worsen river water quality after promising in 2016 that no environmental regulations would be weakened after leaving the EU.

"They have broken that promise made to the British people.”

Local concern about the water quality of the River Nidd has become widespread in the last two years.

Yorkshire Water has strongly defended its record on pollution and sewage.

It has attended meetings about the issue this year with the Environment Agency, the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, the AONB and members of Knaresborough Town Council.

The need for action has led to The Nidd Action Group calling for a stretch of the Nidd at Knaresborough to be granted bathing water status.

This would mean the Environment Agency (EA) would be forced to conduct more intensive pollution monitoring to ensure the water is safe for swimming.

The bathing water status campaign, which would not in itself solve the Nidd’s problems, is backed by all local political parties, including The Tories, Lib Dems and Greens.

Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough Andrew Jones has raised his concerns over water in the Nidd in the House of Commons.

In July he welcomed a vote by North Yorkshire Council to support the bid for bathing water status as a potential "milestone" for the future wellbeing of the Nidd.

And the usage of the River Nidd at the Lido is being monitored by volunteers coordinated by Mr Jones’s office.

But the MP has been criticised by Knaresborough Lib Dem councillor Matt Walker, who claims Mr Jones is using the Nidd water issue as a “political tool” to help him get elected at next year’s general election.

In the meantime, ongoing water quality testing in the Nidd is being undertaken by the Nidd Action Group and Leeds University.

Wild swimmers Alice Blatchford and Adam Harper have a more straightforward message: "When is the Government going to get serious about cleaning up our filthy rivers?"