AN APPLICATION has been sent to Defra by Calstock Parish Council to apply for Designated Bathing Water Status in the Tamar at Calstock.

The bid to secure bathing water designation has been ongoing and was headed by Sophie Westwood, a Calstock resident, who expressed concern about sewage being present in the Tamar where children were bathing. Sophie, who was working as a parish councillor at the time conducted surveys and was in conversation with MP Sheryll Murray to flag up the issue.

Councillor Richard Chance has since taken on the application from Sophie Westwood who recently resigned from the council. Richard said: ‘We’ve discussed at some length about pollution in the River Tamar, so as far as we’re concerned bathing water status is one part of a series of actions that we’d like to be able to take to make sure that the people that are polluting the river do something about it.

‘If you look at the application you can see clearly that people are bathing in Calstock. Kids are jumping in the water all summer.

‘If we get bathing water status then the Environment Agency will have to sample the water during the swimming season, if it’s not fit to swim in then they take action.’

The council’s environment and climate emergency committee also want to get funding to sample the water prior to Environment Agency involvement to ascertain the water quality of the Tamar at various times of the year.

‘This is not about encouraging swimming in Calstock, its about making swimming in Calstock safer’, said Richard.