Health alerts at Knaresborough prompt moves for better water quality at River Nidd

Green Party activist and member of Knaresborough Town Council, Shan Oakes said moves were gathering pace to win Bathing Water Status for parts of the Nidd after the alarm was sounded by anglers in the area.

"The idea was spawned in August at a meeting called by the Nidd Catchment Angling group in Darley who had noticed pollution in the river.

"The Nidd, like many others in the UK, is not clean and we must work out how to clean it up.”

Despite existing safeguards for the Nidd, which runs for 56 miles from the slopes of Great Whernside through Pateley Bridge and Knaresborough before joining the River Ouse at Nun Monkton, the river is not immune from the sort of horror stories seen in the national press involving raw sewage or household discharges.

Recent years have seen a series of health alerts on the Nidd, including a category 1 major pollution declared by the Environment Agency in June 2021 after a 12-mile stretch of the Nidd turned brown in colour.In July this year, a group of Harrogate parents raised fears about the safety of the Nidd after children fell ill after swimming at Knaresborough in hot weather.

The first meeting on the issue saw a wide range of parties in attendance, including the Environment Agency, the AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, Yorkshire Water, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones.

Earlier this week a second meeting took place at Knaresborough House high above the Nidd as it snakes under the town’s High Bridge.

“It was encouraging to see people from Leeds University and several Knaresborough residents including additional town councillors there,” said Shan Oakes.

"It was agreed that the best way forward is to work towards Bathing Water Status.”

If granted Bathing Water Status, the Environment Agency would have a duty to test water in the Nidd regularly for including E. Coli throughout the bathing water season.