Bathing Water Regulations Consultation

Dear DEFRA and MPs of the Test, Itchen and Meon Rivers,

I am writing as a respondent to the DEFRA consultation on the proposed reforms to the Bathing Water Regulations 2013.

The Test and Itchen Association  

The Test and Itchen Association which represents over 440 riparian owners, river keepers and individual members from the public, including anglers and those concerned for the general condition of the chalk stream rivers of Hampshire.  As an Association, like many anglers’ groups around the country, we are intimately involved in monitoring the health of our rivers. 

Consultees and Lack of an Impact Assessment 

We are extremely disappointed that riparian owners are not listed as consultees. The focus has been on bathing water users and interests.  This underlines the fundamental misunderstanding around the linkages between bathers and other potential water users and actual harms to the wider riverine environment.  We also note this consultation has not conducted any form of impact assessment and this is an obvious oversight as matters such as navigation, environmental impacts and riparian rights have been overlooked.  

The Situation 

The Test, Itchen and Meon rivers are chalk stream rivers, one of the rarest habitats on the planet. Chalk streams are globally rare, with only around 200 in the world.  The Test & Itchen are both classified as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), with the Itchen additionally designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).  Recently Natural England have written to Local Planning Authorities to effectively assign SAC protection to the River Meon and the River Test as mitigation to the ongoing damage being done to the River Itchen due to over abstraction.  This just goes to show how under threat these rivers are. 

Chalk streams are typically shallow and very finely balanced river systems whose eco-system is highly sensitive to flow when too much water is removed and the flow decreases.  Over-abstraction of water from the rivers, sewage overflows and chemical pollution is now putting these valuable eco-systems at risk.  Further pressures from bathing and recreational users will accelerate the harm and is likely to cause members of the public to unwittingly break the law as they disturb protected spawning grounds and other protected features of these special places.

General Concerns

Safeguarding Protected Habitats.   The consultation does not seem to recognise the need to protect endangered and protected species.  The Salmonid spawning season must be protected and the idea that year-round bathing activities may be allowed is deeply concerning.  We understand the logic of local control on the dates by the EA, but fear that any loosening of the ‘bathing season’ will confuse the public. It is taking considerable effort to educate the ‘illegal’ bathers in our rivers, and this would completely undercut these efforts.  These reforms will put members of the public, as they disturb spawning sites, at risk of prosecution under Section2 (4) of the Salmon and Freshwaters Fisheries Act.  Moreover, on our SSSI/SAC rivers there are likely to be other offences such as disturbance to other protected species.  The fact that there is little enforcement by the regulators, due to underfunding and lack of staff, exacerbates any loosening of the regulations to allow more activity in protected sites.

Bathers and Environmental Harm.  Whilst there are no ‘designated’ bathing sites on the chalk streams in Hampshire, there are unofficial sites that are causing harm to the environment.  These sites typically suffer from bank erosion, and due to the shallower nature of our rivers, bathers are disturbing salmonid and coarse fish spawning grounds.  Added to which, pets and swimmers are introducing harmful chemicals; suncreams and flea treatments.  Wider reforms to define multiple users as bathers increases the risk to these protected rivers as the public will be emboldened to use more and more unofficial sites.  Moreover, introducing canoeists and other watercraft into the mix, will inevitably cause ‘bathers’ to spread beyond the confines of designated or unofficial sites.  This will introduce further environmental harms.  

Rights of Navigation.  There is no general right to navigation on non-tidal rivers in England and Wales.  Wider Reform1 will encourage water users to think there is such a general right.  This will cause conflict between water users and riparian owners who have not granted voluntary access rights.  The proposed reform seems to be some form of back door route to wider general access.  This is likely to emboldened acts of deliberate trespass as ‘bathers’ seek to extend their reach on rivers where no right to navigation exists.  

We strongly urge that DEFRA:

• Drop the Wider Reform 1 proposal to widen the current definition of bathers.
• Create an exemption from designated bathing areas in protected areas such as SSSIs and SACs, thereby underlining the need to protect nature.
• Ensure, that if any of these proposals are taken forward, that an impact assessment is conducted that will consider environmental impacts on fish spawning grounds and wider habitat, the rights of riparian owners and the economic effects on fisheries.
• Ensure there is a more inclusive consultation with riparian owners going forward.

I am copying in the local MPs who sit in the two river catchments that the Association covers.  I would urge you all to back us in calling for these reforms to be rethought given our collective concerns.

I am also copying in the Angling Trust, who act on our behalf at a national level.

I thank you for considering this response.

Yours sincerely

Paul Vignaux

Executive Director

Test & Itchen Association

07340 865 502