A GOVERNMENT minister dipped her toes into the Thames in Oxford as it became just the second stretch of river in the country to be declared a safe swimming spot.
Wolvercote Mill Stream, north of Port Meadow, has been given Designated Bathing Water Status and declared open for the swimming season.
However, fears remain over pollution caused by the dumping of raw sewage upstream, with an Oxford city councillor insisting people would become sick by swimming in the polluted water. Member for Wolvercote, Jo Sandelson, said: "People will still be getting ill."
READ MORE: Oxford's Port Meadow granted water bathing status
Between now and the end of the season, on September 30, the Environment Agency (EA) will carry out regular water quality tests, with warnings of forecasted pollution posted on the agency’s Swimfo website.
Yesterday, a test was carried out at the Wolvercote site, with visiting Environment Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Rebecca Pow saying the test “came out really well”.
However Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran, who was at the event, cast doubt on the findings, asking "Was it tested before or after the rain?”.
Volunteers collecting samples at Oxford swimming spots, including Port Meadow, found that after rain the sewage spilling into the Thames made swimming spots unsafe.
Campaigners have called for improvements to sewage works following well-publicised spills of waste by Thames Water into the Thames and its tributaries.
An analysis of Environment Agency data by the Oxford Rivers Improvement Campaign (ORIC) on sewage discharges for 2021 revealed that the company last year dumped sewage for more than 68,000 hours into the county's rivers.
READ MORE: Sewage fungus sighted in West Oxfordshire after heavy rain
Across the upper Thames, 102 sewage treatment works discharged into the rivers in 2021. Of those, 49 discharged for more than 10 hours a week and almost quarter of the works discharged for more than 1,000 hours in the year.
Thames Water discharged raw sewage into the Thames, Windrush, Thame, Evenlode and Ock 5,028 times that year, according to the data.
Only a third of the treatment works on the upper Thames which need investment will be upgraded by 2025. That figure falls to a quarter when the region's rising populations are taken into account.
When confronted by the Oxford Mail over water quality, Ms Pow ignored the question and instead talked about other dangers to open water swimmers.
She said: “We as a Government are revolutionaries when it comes to water quality.”
She said £3.1 billion was being invested specifically in storm overflow improvements by water companies working with the Government.
She said the budget had also increased for so-called catchment sensitive farming, which helps farmers to develop environmentally sustainable methods that limit the contamination of nearby bodies of water from things like manure or pesticides.
She said the new annual budget will be £30m, up from £16.6m in 2020-21, adding: “This means it will cover 100 per cent of England’s farmland, up from 40 per cent of its current coverage, with every farmer able to access advice and support by March 2023.
“This will raise standards of nutrient pollution management by setting clearer expectations for farmers.”
Ms Sandelson, who was also at the event, lashed out at the Conservatives for using the event as a ‘PR stunt’.
She said: “I feel that although the ministry says this is not political, and I’m so glad that we have bathing water status, they have come here to claim the hard work done by others as their own.
“Their targets are too far in the future. People will still be getting ill and wildlife will still be damaged by pollution.”
Speaking at the event, Ms Moran said: “The Conservatives have absolutely come under a huge amount of pressure.
“This really was a community campaign. It was local people who put real teeth behind the environment bill.
“That said, I’m glad they have given outdoor bathing status to this site.”
Ms Moran also commended the work of Claire Robertson, Oxford rivers project officer at Thames21, who was one of the researchers who put together the data behind the campaign for designated swimming water.
Miss Robertson lives on a boat in the area and is a keen river swimmer, said she was ‘overjoyed’ it has been designated as a bathing area.
She said: “It’s such a relief to finally know that it is getting monitored and protected.
Witney and West Oxfordshire MP Robert Courts said: “This is a really positive step forward for those of us who are campaigning for clean local rivers that people can enjoy and in which wildlife can thrive.”
Read more from this author
This story was written by Shosha Adie.
She joined the team in 2022 as a digital reporter.
To get in touch with her email: Shosha.Adie@newsquest.co.uk
Follow her on Twitter: @ShoshaAdie
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