Flooding is expected in low-lying areas alongside the River Ure near Boroughbridge, the Environment Agency said this morning.
Two flood alerts and one flood warning are active in the Harrogate district, which is at greater risk of flooding than almost anywhere else in northern England and the Midlands.
The more severe flood warning is from Aldwark Bridge to Cuddy Shaw on the Ure, just south of Boroughbridge.
An Environment Agency update for this area at 7.04am today said:
“River levels in the lower River Ure remain high due to recent rainfall associated with Storm Debi. Areas affected are properties at Aldwark Bridge and at Thorpe Underwood in Cuddy Shaw.
“Levels at Aldwark Bridge are continuing to fall but remain high. We expect levels to continue falling today.
“Please put your flood plan in place.”
Environment Agency advice on what to do is available here.
Two people had to be rescued from a vehicle trapped in flood water in Boroughbridge yesterday. The previous night, firefighters pumped two-feet of standing water from a home in the town.
Less severe flood alerts are active for the lower Nidd catchment and the lower Ure.
The flood alert area for the Nidd includes land around the lower Nidd and its tributaries including Sand Beck, Sike Beck, Pool Beck and Great Gutter.
For the lower Ure, the area at risk is low-lying land including agricultural land and local roads in the areas around Masham, Boroughbridge, Aldborough and Bishop Monkton.
Brighter is weather is expected this afternoon and tomorrow before further outbreaks of rain this weekend.
Public meeting to be held about state of River Nidd
A public meeting is to be held in Knaresborough next month to discuss the campaign to improve water quality in the River Nidd.
The drop-in meeting will follow a similar format to the one held in March, which marked the start of the campaign.
Groups involved will give short presentations and talk to people on a one-to-one basis.
Topics will include the results of recent water sampling on the Nidd, which revealed high levels of faecal bacteria, the bid for bathing water status and Yorkshire Water’s business plan for 2025 to 2030.
Nidd Action Group, which includes Knaresborough town councillors, environmental campaigners, anglers, councillors and community groups, will again stage the event at the Centre-on-Gracious Street.
The meeting, titled ‘What do we know about the River Nidd and its tributaries – and what do we need to do?’ will take place on December 5 from 3pm to 6.30pm.
Stands and displays will enable visitors to familiarise themselves with the campaign, which was prompted by concerns about water quality and bathers at Knaresborough Lido suffering sickness and diarrhoea,
Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, submitted the bid for bathing water status to rivers minister Rebecca Pow last week.
If successful, government agencies would be obliged to take action to improve water quality at the lido. This would also improve water quality on a much longer stretch of the river.
The bid has been backed by 33 organisations and businesses, including Knaresborough Town Council, North Yorkshire Council, Yorkshire Agricultural Society and Bilton Conservation Group.
A decision is expected by the end of April next year.
Knaresborough bridge to close tonight for nighttime resurfacing
High Bridge in Knaresborough will be closed to nighttime traffic for the next 11 days from this evening due to resurfacing.
North Yorkshire Council posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, today that the closure will be in effect from 7pm until midnight daily until Friday, November 17.
It added a “fully signposted diversion” will be in place.
The grade two listed bridge over the River Nidd, which passes Mother Shipton’s Cave, is the main route into Knaresborough from the Starbeck direction.
Councillor Matt Walker, a Liberal Democrat who represents Knaresborough West, said it was a standard resurfacing project and he wasn’t aware of any concerns.
But he added:
“What the council haven’t done is put new lights over the bridge yet.
“This funding was put in place prior to us being elected and we keep getting a push back on when it will happen.”
Harrogate and Knaresborough MP submits River Nidd bathing water status bid
A bid to designate the River Nidd at Knaresborough bathing water status has been submitted to ministers.
Harrogate and Knaresborough MP, Andrew Jones, handed the proposal to Rebecca Pow, minister for rivers.
If designation is successful, government agencies would be obliged to take action to improve water quality at Knaresborough Lido. This would also improve water quality on a much wider stretch of the river.
The campaign to designate part of the Nidd with bathing water status comes after reports of numerous bathers falling ill last summer.
The bid has been backed by 33 organisations and businesses, such as Knaresborough Town Council, North Yorkshire Council, Yorkshire Agricultural Society and Bilton Conservation Group.
Mr Jones also worked with the Nidd Action Group, which carried out regular water testing on the River Nidd.
He said:
“This is an impressive array of local support.
“From riverside businesses to farmers, from councils to water users, from environmental groups to nearby residents the campaign has seen an unprecedented level of backing.
“All those people and organisations speaking with one voice is an incredibly powerful endorsement of the bid and I made that point to the minister when I handed her the bid.”
Ministers and officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will now consider the bid and a result is expected by April 30, 2024.
High levels of faecal bacteria in River Nidd confirmed
A second round of water sampling on the River Nidd has confirmed high levels of the faecal bacteria E.coli.
Volunteers tested for E.coli levels along the length of the Nidd as part of a clean-up campaign amid concerns about the state of the river and reports of bathers at Knaresborough Lido suffering sickness and diarrhoea.
The first round of sampling took place in August and the laboratory results of the second round, which took place a fortnight ago, were released last week.
David Clayden, chairman of Nidd Action Group, which coordinated the sampling, said the latest results confirmed the previous findings, which showed concentrations of E. coli bacteria were above acceptable limits.
He added the locations identified as E.coli hotspots in August once again produced the most concerning results.
Tributaries in the middle and lower Nidd catchment, including Ripley Beck, Oak Beck and Crimple Beck, had the highest concentrations of E.coli, with Bilton Beck the worst.
Sampling at Oak Beck in August.
In general, concentrations of E. coli were much lower in the upper catchment of the river from Pateley Bridge to Birstwith, than in the middle and lower catchments.
Knaresborough sampling locations revealed concentrations above the levels deemed sufficient for inland bathing water.
The Nidd Action Group committee met on Friday to talk about next steps, which will include organising a second public meeting to discuss progress and plans for 2024.
Mr Clayden said the meeting will be held in Knaresborough in early December and would follow a similar format to the one staged in March this year.
Meanwhile, Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, is expected to submit a bid to the government in the next few days to designate bathing water status on the Nidd.
If accepted, agencies will be obliged to undertake measures to clean the Nidd, as has happened on the River Wharfe in Ilkley.
North Yorkshire Council looks set to write to the government calling for fundamental reform of the planning system to improve the county’s rivers, watercourses and coastline.
The Conservative-run council will consider pressing Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Thérèse Coffey, to make a series of changes to the National Planning Policy Framework to avert pollution as a result of new development.
The proposal has been approved by the authority’s transport, economy and environment scrutiny committee as a recommendation to be considered at a full meeting of the authority next month, alongside a series of other proposals to get to grips with water pollution in the county.
The meeting heard councillors raise serious concerns over water pollution in rivers such as the Swale and Ure, which run through Rishi Sunak’s constituency, as well as the county’s coastal waters, where marine life has repeatedly been impacted by a mystery issue in the water.
Liberal Democrat councillor Steve Mason told the committee the proposals needed bolstering by national policy to ensure developers could not use devices such as viability tests to avoid consideration of water issues.
He said:
“We need to be lobbying hard for this to be included in national legislation.”
Cllr Hannah Gostlow, whose division includes Knaresborough and the River Nidd, which saw 870 sewage dump incidents last year, said lobbying government would be viewed as “a major step” by the authority.
The proposed measures will aim to establish what the impacts and receptors are in relation to any development.
The meeting heard neither Local Plan policies nor national framework have the capacity to extend consideration in planning decisions to where foul water is in the main sewer, in terms of how it is treated.
Councillors were told a motion of council, to make water issues a “material planning consideration” would be of limited weight, and were they to be treated as having more weight in a development decision than the Local Plan or national framework, the decision could be challenged by developers at appeal.
Councillors from a range of political groups told the meeting there was a clear mandate to seek to have more robust engagement with water firms “to fully understand capacity constraints and opportunities”.
It is hoped making water firms statutory consultees in planning decisions, in the same way as exists for flooding and highways authorities, would allow the companies to embed expanding their capacity and technologies to reduce the incidence of flooding, whilst accommodating increased usage.
After the meeting, the council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said he sympathised with proposals to make water firms statutory consultees in planning decisions.
He said he believed councillors would all support lobbying the government to enable water firms to levy infrastructure charges on property developers to enable them to finance improving the capacity of systems such as sewage.
When asked whether the government should introduce a tougher system of fines for pollution breaches, Cllr Les said he was concerned water users would face increased charges to cover the firms’ fines.
Hydro project planned for River Nidd at KnaresboroughA scheme to build a water-powered turbine on the banks of the River Nidd in Knaresborough has received a £10,000 boost.
Knaresborough Community Energy, a not-for-profit community benefit society founded in February this year, wants to build the turbine at the town’s Lido to produce low carbon electricity.
A £10,000 grant from electricity distributor Northern Powergrid will enable the society to conduct structural surveys of the Lido weir to ascertain its condition.
If the weir is found to be in good condition the scheme will proceed to the next stage, which would involve civil engineering design, environmental permits and a planning application.
Building a water turbine is estimated to cost a minimum of £300,000, which would be raised via a community share offer.
Investors would be paid back from revenue generated from the electricity sold. Any surplus would be reinvested in more renewable energy projects.
Gilly Lacey, director and secretary of KCE said:
”Our purpose is to generate low carbon electricity for the community as a means to tackle climate change in a positive way.
“Our current project is a proposed hydroelectric turbine on the River Nidd at the Lido. It will be similar in design to the one on the Nidd at Goldsborough”.
Fellow director Adam Harper said it hoped to know by next summer whether the Lido project is feasible.
He added the group also had plans to help install rooftop solar panels on local buildings.
River Nidd bathing water bid to be sent next month
An application for the River Nidd in Knaresborough to be designated bathing water status is to be submitted to the government next month.
If successful, the move would oblige organisations such as the Environment Agency to take action to clean the Nidd, amid concerns about high sewage levels and bathers falling ill at Knaresborough Lido.
Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones will submit the application after overseeing a survey of how many people use the Lido during the bathing water season from May 15 to September 30.
Mr Jones said the deadline for sending the application to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was the end of October. He added:
“Once submitted, there begins a long process in which Defra consult with many key stakeholders including Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency.
“Whilst we can’t be sure when the result will be known, applications that were submitted last year found out around March of this year.”
He said further surveys at the Lido were unlikely due to the colder weather, adding:
“The numbers we received from the surveys were excellent, and were nicely capped with that final burst of good weather a couple of weeks ago which saw hundreds of people swimming in the River Nidd at the Lido.”
The surveying was hampered a change in guidance in early July, but Mr Jones said “we have a committed team of volunteers which enabled us to adjust our plan quickly and fulfil the new criteria”.
Last month’s sampling in Bilton.
Nidd Action Group, which consists of anglers, academics, conservationists and volunteers has undertaken water sampling along the Nidd as part of the clean-up campaign.
The first round of sampling took place last month and a second round is required.
David Clayden, chairman of the group, said:
“We have identified four possible dates, but they are dependent on getting four days with no rain prior to the sampling day – so the first two, September 25 or 27, are no good.
“We are now aiming for either October 4 or 5 – again dependent on prior weather forecasts.”
Knaresborough Town Council gave its backing to the bathing water application this week — but the Liberal Democrat-controlled council added clauses urging the government to do more to protect rivers.
Cllr Kathryn Davies, a Conservative elected in Aspin and Calcutt who took part in the Lido survey, proposed a motion calling for the council to support the application.
It said the Nidd at the Lido was an important resource for the people of Knaresborough and improving water quality “would have significant benefits for the environment, public health, recreation and the local economy”.
But David Goode, a Liberal Democrat who represents Castle ward, said the motion “looked like a concerted effort by the Tory party to deflect attention” from allowing water companies to dump sewage in the river.
He proposed additional clauses, which included writing to Mr Jones requesting he “votes against any legislation that weakens planning and environmental policy” and “supports the call for water companies to be turned into public benefit companies with the aim of reducing leaks and sewage dumping, as well as limiting returns to shareholders”.
Open day in Pateley Bridge gives people chance to learn about local rivers
The Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust is hosting an open day in Pateley Bridge this weekend to give local people an insight into its work.
The environmental charity protects local rivers, including the Swale, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe and Ouse, by carrying out educational projects and engaging with communities.
The open day will tell people about its work in areas such as water sampling, flood management and controlling non-native species, as well as highlighting the importance of healthy river environments.
A representative of Nidd Action Group, which is campaigning to clean-up the Nidd, will be among a number of guest speakers.
There will also be two guided walks along the Nidd, a lunch time poster session and a session in the Rivers4U mobile classroom where people can enjoy learn about the river and life within it further.
Soup, coffee and cake will be on offer during the lunch session.
Dr Marie Taylor, chief executive of the trust, said:
“People are now far more aware of the quality of Yorkshire’s rivers and yet many are probably less aware of the extent of the trust’s endeavours and our partnership achievements in monitoring and improving our waterways.
“The open day is a great opportunity to explore the breadth of our work, learn about what we have delivered with others, and discover how to support these activities.”
The event will take place on Saturday, September 16, from 11am – 3.30pm.
It will be held at the Riverside Scout Hut in Pateley Bridge and is free to attend.
Photo of the Week: River Nidd
Michelle Bray
Photo of the Week celebrates the Harrogate district. It could be anything from family life to capturing the district’s beauty. We are interested in amateur and professional photographs, in a landscape format.
Send your photographs to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk for a chance to be featured next week, we reserve the right to adjust and crop images to fit into our format.