Water quality at Ilkley River Wharfe bathing site classified as 'poor' for third time

For every designated bathing water in England, the Environment Agency monitors Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci in the water, throughout the bathing season from May to September. Factors such as the weather, pollution from agricultural and urban sources, and storm water overflows can affect the measurements.

Ilkley’s classification results take into account the period from being designated in 2021 to the most recent water sample taken in September this year. Karen Shackleton, a founding member of the Ilkley Clean River Group, said the classification at the popular swimming and paddling spot was “no surprise”.

She says the group, which was set up to “protect the River Wharfe from pollution”, applied for bathing water status to drive investment into Ilkley to clean up the river. The Government said at the time that bathing water status meant that the Environment Agency would regularly take samples from the river to assess whether action was needed to cut bacteria levels, “helping to ensure the water is cleaner and safer for swimmers”.

Karen says she helped found the campaign group after speaking to a fisherman back in 2018 and discovering that sewage waste was being channelled into the river. “Instead of catching fish on his line, he was catching sanitary towels, wet wipes, toilet paper, condoms,” she says.

The Government says there are “strict permit conditions” for storm overflow processes, which allow sewage diluted with water to be sent to rivers and seas during times of heavy rain or snow “which exceeds or overwhelms sewer capacity”.

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said the firm had made “significant investment” in Ilkley since bathing water status was approved for the River Wharfe, including a new sewer to reduce discharges into the river from this month.

"This scheme has now been extended to ensure we meet the new government targets for one spill into inland bathing waters during bathing water season, ahead of the 2035 deadline,” the spokesperson said.

"This will ensure we do our bit in improving the water quality, but we know that there are other inputs to the Wharfe that require other stakeholders to do the same.”

The spokesperson said the company was also working to increase the level of treatment of sewage in four sites upstream of the bathing site during bathing water season and had secured investment from The Water Services Regulation Authority, Ofwat, to “further improve our network in Ilkley and improve water quality”.

"We also recently submitted our business plans for 2025-2030 to Ofwat for approval as part of the price review process, which outline a £1.4bn investment to reduce overflows.”

Ahead of a town meeting in Ilkley in October, members of the campaign group said they were pleased that the “tenacity of Ilkley residents to get our river cleaned up” was leading to investment in the Wharfe. Work at Ilkley, they said, could be a blueprint for rivers across the country, showing what is possible and what it costs.

Karen says she hopes the group becomes an example “for everybody else fighting for upgrades to clean up rivers”. “Now, other campaigns have applied for bathing water status as a means to cleaning their rivers up as well,” she says. "The cleanup at Ilkley and upstream at places like Addingham will take time but our aim is to set a precedent for other areas to follow so rivers up and down the country will be cleaned up for people and wildlife to enjoy safely.”

In 2023, out of the 423 bathing waters measured in England, 95.7 per cent met at least the minimum standard of the Bathing Water Regulations. The number of ‘poor’ bathing waters rose to the highest level since the adoption of a four-tier classification system (excellent, good, sufficient, poor) in 2015.

River Action’s CEO, James Wallace, said: “We want to see all the UK’s rivers healthy and free of agricultural and sewage waste pollution."