River Cam: Support for bathing area to clean 'rancid filth out of the river’
Some councillors raised concerns the move could give people the “false impression of safety” to swim in the river
Last updated 9th Oct 2023
Councillors have voiced support for creating a designated bathing area in the River Cam to help get the “rancid filth out of the river”.
Cambridge City Council has agreed to support the Cam Valley Forum’s application to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to get an area of the river at Sheep’s Green designated.
However, some councillors raised concerns that the move could give people the “false impression of safety” to swim in the river.
A report presented to the city council’s environment and community scrutiny committee this week (September 5), said a consultation by the Cam Valley Forum indicated there was a large number of people already swimming in the river who were being exposed to the “significant health risks”.
The report explained that if the water at Sheep’s Green became a designated bathing area the water quality would be monitored, and information about the water quality and pollution would be displayed.
Council officers said the designation would be a “positive starting point towards a longer term solution around water quality”.
However, some councillors said they had concerns about the plans. Councillor Elliot Tong (Green Party) said: “I think it is a pretty bad idea, doing occasional tests for a few months a year has shown itself not to work very well in other places and it gives the false impression of safety, which could end up baiting someone that would not have gone swimming otherwise into swimming in the river.
“I know that people are swimming there anyway and we do want to make it safer for them, however I do think that is more indicative of the fact that we have not communicated that the river is filled with rancid filth than anything else, and I don’t think this is a decision we should double down on by giving it our blessing as a good place to swim.”
Councillor Jean Galsberg (Green Party) said Sheep’s Green was a nature reserve and said important concerns had been raised about the environmental impact of people swimming there.
She said she did not believe a designated bathing would address the wider issue and said Anglian Water should be funding the improvements to clean up the river anyway. Cllr Glasberg said the council could also put up water quality information without the designation.
Councillor Olaf Hauk (Liberal Democrat) said the designation was a way the city council could do something about the pollution in the River Cam.
He said it would at least provide information to the people who were already swimming in the river about the water quality.
Councillor Sam Carling (Labour), the executive councillor for open spaces and city services, said he could assure people that the city council would not be promoting the area as a place to swim.
He said he wanted to get the “rancid filth out of the river” and said removing sewage from the river was good for both people and wildlife.
Cllr Carling explained that while only the designated area of the river would be tested, it would require issues upstream to be improved in order to clean up the water, which he said would help the wider river.
He added that the city council could not make a private water company improve the water quality without getting the designation.
A majority of the committee councillors voted in favour of supporting the Cam Valley Forum in its application for a designated bathing water.