People who swim in the River Avon in Bristol have vowed to keep up their fight to get the council to back them, despite the Mayor of Bristol turning down their appeal for a change in the city’s byelaws.
Marvin Rees went against a 5,200-signature petition and the unanimous cross-party support of all the councillors in Bristol and said he would not be altering a byelaw which prohibits anyone swimming in the River Avon or the Floating Harbour.
People who swim at the Conham River Park on the Avon near Hanham said they need the council to back their bid to ask the Government for the river there to have Designated Bathing Water Status - but the Mayor of Bristol turned that down earlier this month and instead decided to give ground on a separate wild swimming campaign - to create a safe swimming spot in the Cumberland Basin.
Read more: Safe swimming spot in Bristol’s harbour could be piloted as calls grow to scrap ban
Campaigners went to City Hall last month - with many dressed in swimwear holding a pool party on College Green beforehand - to present a 5,200-signature petition asking for the council to tweak a byelaw banning any swimming in the River Avon or the docks, so that swimming could be allowed in the River Avon at the Conham River Park.
The petition and the campaign got the backing of councillors, but although Marvin Rees said that the council would think about it, he said relaxing the byelaws on swimming could not be done in isolation.
“We have been asked to review and remove the byelaws that prohibit swimming. This cannot be done in isolation, however the legislation to our harbour estate will be reviewed in the next couple of years, and I have asked this be considered as part of that process,” he added.
The Conham Bathing campaign group want to ask the Government to make that stretch of the River Avon as a designated bathing water status because that would mean the Environment Agency would be empowered to keep the water in the river there clean. It would almost certainly mean Wessex Water would face sanctions for continuing to allow sewage to discharge into the river there or further upstream.
The Conham Bathing Group have been monitoring the river there, and say the release of sewage and road runoff pollution makes it way into the river regularly - and said that in the time between October’s debate in the council chamber and the Mayor’s response, sewage was being released into the river for a total of 16,901 minutes - or 11.7 days.
The swimming campaigners say the Designated Bathing Water Status is the only method they have to be able to legally stop Wessex Water releasing sewage into the river whenever there’s any substantial rain, but said they can’t even make the application for the status without the backing of Bristol City Council. At present, swimming is banned in all of the river and floating harbour.
Instead of backing the petition and the campaign over Conham River Park, the Mayor is instead looking at a linked but very different campaign to allow wild swimming in the Cumberland Basin at the other end of the city.
There have been several illegal swim protests by wild swimmers asking to be allowed to swim in the Cumberland Basin, and campaign leader Johnny Palmer has made a film about the idea of creating a Copenhagen-style lido in the Basin.
The Mayor has backed that idea, and said something would be happening with this next year. “We know many people want the opportunity to enjoy open water safely,” he said. “We have therefore listened to people’s requests for a safe swimming space in the harbour, and are actively working to make this request a reality, with a view to piloting something next year. We’re currently working through operational requirements to enable this, and will share more details on these plans shortly,” he added.
The Cumberland Basin typically has better water quality than the river Avon at Conham, mainly because of Wessex Water’s nearby discharge points for Combined Sewage Outflows. Wessex Water made £160 million profit last year, prompting South Gloucestershire’s Liberal Democrats to call for a ‘sewage tax’ on the company to pay for the investment needed to introduce a system which didn’t release sewage into the River Avon.
Wessex Water is owned by YTL, the Malaysian company which is developing the Brabazon Arena at Filton. Part of the council’s controversial Ecological Emergency Strategy, drawn up after Bristol’s council declared an ecological emergency, was for all of the city’s waterways to be 100 per cent ‘excellent’ by 2030.
One supporter of the Conham Bathing Group, Penny Morgan, said: “Such a shame that the solution found, evidenced and handed on a plate by a group of volunteers to tackle sewage pollution and health risks has not been supported and shows that wordy ecology city plans mean nothing if you won’t take the decisions and steps needed.”
The Conham Bathing Group said they were disappointed with the Mayor’s response, but said they would continue their campaign. “The group recognises that this stretch of the River Avon is a beloved, yet sadly threatened, bathing site, with or without the recognition of the Mayor,” a spokesperson said.
“Campaigning on this issue will continue until the environmental vandalism of releasing sewage and drain water into our precious freshwater ecosystems is stopped. In his official response to the petition, the mayor seeks to dismiss and delay this crucial action on river pollution, despite citing the Council’s Ecological Emergency Strategy target of achieving 100 per cent excellent quality waterways by 2030. While the Conham Bathing group welcomes further opportunities for safe outdoor swimming in Bristol, this response clearly ignores the premise of the petition, and indeed the debate held at Full Council.
“The petition does not request a new swimming site in Bristol harbour. Rather, it brings to the attention of relevant authorities that a swimming site already exists in the Avon, several miles away from the harbour, and that it deserves to be protected and improved for the health of people who swim there, and for the health of the river itself,” they added.
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