Wild swimmers told: You’ll have to take the plunge first before dirty rivers are cleaned up

Wild swimmers must take the lead in cleaning up their rivers, a government minister has said, amid a backlash from campaigners.

The second river bathing site in the UK was opened on Monday in Oxford by Rebecca Pow, the environment minister, who called for bids to make more areas into official swimming spots to help tackle river pollution.

The Wharfe at Ilkley and the Thames at Port Meadow, Oxford, are now official bathing sites, meaning the Environment Agency will test for bacteria during the summer swimming season - part of an existing scheme that covers hundreds of Britain's beaches.

But campaigners at the first river bathing site in Yorkshire criticised ministers for relying on the public to apply for new bathing waters.

It came as the Government rejected calls to monitor the volume of untreated sewage pouring into rivers from storm overflow outlets. It said it was concerned that stricter "nutrient neutrality" rules to protect rivers from agricultural and sewage pollution might restrict housebuilding.

None of Britain's rivers is in "good" health, with pollution from sewage combined with agricultural waste causing problems such as contamination from e-coli and high nutrient levels, which damage wildlife.

Ms Pow told The Telegraph: "The good thing about these bathing sites, and it will be the same in Ilkley, is the focus will be on them now, and measures will have to be put in place.

"That's why I'm so pleased that we are launching another inland bathing site.

"We're actually saying 'please come on and put more applications in'.

“We get very few applications. So we're encouraging more."

Applying for bathing water status involves showing that people already swim in the river at that spot, and that there are toilets and parking or public transport.

The system means the public must prove that people are already swimming in potentially harmful rivers, before they can get help testing the water for bacteria.

Ilkley Clean River Group, which succeeded in making the Wharfe a designated bathing site in 2020, submitted a 65-page report, including photographic evidence of people swimming, headcounts of swimmers, letters of support, water testing and surveys.

Professor Becky Malby, co-founder of the Ilkley group, said there needed to be more consistent action to stop pollution going into rivers, rather than asking the public to apply for specific spots to be cleaner.

She said: "Local councils know where people use rivers, because they put loos there, and lifebelts, and picnic tables and signs. So why are we having to apply?

"Why is the public having to spend a whole summer traipsing around counting people in order to apply for bathing status?

"We did it absolutely and only because it was the only way to get some attention on Ilkley. It wasn't because we thought it was the right thing to do. It was because it was the only thing left for us to do.

"I think it's just to get us all busy doing stuff that's a waste of time."

Bathing waters are de-designated after five years if the water is consistently poor. Prof Malby warned that is likely to happen in Ilkley unless more concerted action is taken to tackle pollution from sewage.

"Half of the stretch is poor and half is a fail,” she said. “The bit that's poor, there's a chance that it might get to 'good', but it's an outside chance."

Claire Robertson, Oxford Rivers Project officer at Thames21, who led the campaign to designate Oxford's bathing water, said she was "cautiously hopeful".

She said: "I am concerned that there won't be enough pressure to actually make Thames Water improve their sewage infrastructure, which our testing has already shown is the main impact on this site.”