We all know that there are huge concerns at the deterioration of the quality of water in our rivers and streams and on our coasts. You will probably have seen beaches closed all along the coast, including at major visitor destination like Westward Ho!, Croyde, and Lynmouth. And there have been regular sewage spillages all across our area. Unfortunately, there is little prospect of political action to tackle this scandal with Selaine Saxby MP recently on national radio saying that the UK has “the cleanest beaches in the world”.

For years we have relied on the Environment Agency or South West Water to test our waters and make sure they are safe, but this clearly isn’t working. The Environment Agency’s budget has been repeatedly cut so that at the moment there is only one person testing all the many watercourses in the north of Devon. SWW tell us not only that there isn’t a problem but that everything is getting better, despite the evidence of our eyes, ears and noses. Click HERE> to see the sewage spillages in your area.

The Westcountry Rivers Trust, a charity, has a programme where it trains volunteers to do simple regular monthly tests of their local river or stream. The training takes a couple of hours and there are well over 1,000 volunteers. In the middle of November 30 people from across northern Devon were trained in Braunton, and another training session is being planned. If you are interested please drop us or the Trust an email.

https://wrt.org.uk/westcountry-csi/

We must change the political system where a charities are forced to do things that should be the job of government.