THE sunshine brought more than 1,000 people to paddle, play and swim in the river in Ilkley on Tuesday.

The number was captured by the Ilkley Clean River Group who are counting people at the river as part of their bid to get Bathing Water Status for the town.

Becky Malby, of the Clean River Group, said: “On hot days people come to our picturesque town to enjoy the countryside and the river.

“We have a fantastic outdoor Lido, but on hot days the queues go round the block, and the pool reaches capacity, so people come to the river instead.”

The campaign group was set up a year ago amid concerns that sewage was being discharged far too often into the River Wharfe from the waste water treatment plant in Ilkley.

After pressure from the group the Environment Agency has also begun testing this year.

Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency are clear that the sewage plant at Addingham and Ilkley are operating within their license.

However, Ilkley residents are outraged that this means in 2018 Yorkshire Water discharged sewage straight into the river 123 days out of 365. The group has been campaigning for an upgrade of the sewage works to cope with the effects of climate change and population increases. In their view the sewage works should only discharge in exceptional weather conditions as determined by the European Wast Water Treatment directive, which would be once or twice a year.

The group is also concerned about the lack of planned regular maintenance to the system which is seeing sewage solids spilling out of manholes along the river footpath when it rains. A route children take to school.

“This has been a problem we have been complaining about for years. It is only since the Clean River Group got involved that Yorkshire Water started taking it seriously,” said Martin Robertshaw, of the group.

One year on the group is assessing what has been achieved and are not satisfied.

A group spokesperson said: “So far Yorkshire Water has made some improvements to the plant so that it reduces the solids ending up on the riverbank, and diverts some of the flow into the storm tanks. They have started checking the pipe system for infiltration but this isn’t completed.

“However they still haven’t installed Event Monitoring (which is a legal requirement by 2020), increased the capacity of the storm tanks, or introduced phosphate stripping of the treated sewage which would really reduce pollution.

“They have started working on the sewage spilling onto the footpath, but the problem isn’t solved. So far there was been no confirmation that there is now a proper maintenance system in place.

“The Environment Agency has started monitoring water quality at Ilkley monthly - something that should have been in place years ago. The campaign group with John Grogan MP met with Sir James Bevan the CEO of the EA who has promised to come and visit Ilkley to assess the situation, but as yet no date has been offered. They say that the next steps are monitoring/ maintenance/ re-monitoring and then assessing whether Ilkley needs a better system. This could take up to 15 years.

“The campaign group says the problem will only get worse, and at the latest town meeting the residents expressed their outrage at the complacency of the Agency in its slow response to the Town’s concerns, and its apparent acceptance of this level of pollution as acceptable.”

For more information visit: https://sites.google.com/view/cleanwharfeilkley/home?authuser=0 or find the group on Facebook.