Green councillors and campaigners have reacted angrily to the decision by Conservative Secretary of State for Environment Therese Coffey, to reject an application for Bathing Water Status for Wallingford. Greens have condemned the process as opaque and not fit for purpose.
South Oxfordshire District Council, Wallingford Town Council and rivers charity Thames21 submitted a joint application for Bathing Water Status last year. The application followed a summer of water quality testing and river user monitoring by dozens of local volunteers and councillors.
In a letter sent on Thursday night, Coffey confirmed the application had been unsuccessful. No specific reasons for refusal were given.
Green councillor and River Thames Champion Jo Robb, who led the Wallingford campaign said, “I am so disappointed and angry, for everyone who worked so hard on this bid. We have no idea why the application has been refused. The process is opaque and seemingly random. We had no opportunity to respond to DEFRA’s concerns and were not even aware there were any concerns until we were told the application had been refused.”
“The whole experience has been defined by a total lack of transparency and due process. To submit an application, hear nothing for four months then be rejected without clear reasons is shocking and has a strong whiff of political interference.”
“DEFRA must publish clear criteria, consult properly on applications and give applicants a fair opportunity to respond to concerns if communities are to have any faith at all in the bathing water designation process.”
Wallingford Green campaigner and regular river swimmer James Barlow said, “People have enjoyed bathing and paddling at Wallingford for years. Our community worked so hard for this and to be refused outright with no explanation is both baffling and unacceptable. The decision and process are as murky as the Thames today – where, right now, Thames Water’s own monitoring shows at least 3 ongoing raw sewage discharges into the stretch of river affecting Wallingford!”
Green Party prospective parliamentary candidate for Wantage, Sam Casey-Rerhaye slammed the decision.
“The government pays lip service to cleaning up our rivers but refuses bathing water status for one of the most widely used stretches of river in the country. This would have shone a light on pollution in the area and given communities the information to force Thames Water to upgrade nearby sewage treatment works. Yet again the Conservatives have shown themselves for what they really are where pollution is involved – they cannot be trusted with our rivers and seemingly are more concerned with covering up what is really happening in our waterways.”
