Clean water campaigners to push ahead with legal action

ABOUT 25 people joined a public meeting in Henley town hall on Monday designed to encourage residents to support clean water campaigners in taking legal action against a water company.

Friends of the Thames, led by Laura Reineke, wants to file a “statutory nuisance complaint” against Thames Water for polluting the River Thames.

The campaign is planning to gather evidence from residents before sending the complaint to South Oxfordshire District Council.

Under the Environmental Protection Act, local authorities have a duty to investigate an abatement notice if pollution is harming public health, the environment, interferes with public enjoyment and is ongoing or likely to recur.

Representatives from seven clubs and associations were present, including Henley Rowing Club, Henley Dragons and Upper Thames Rowing Club.

During the meeting, Ms Reineke urged residents to gather evidence until August for a simultaneous hand-in between September and November. This includes documenting old and new sewage by taking photos and videos and recording its impact by submitting health reports, smell complaints and wildlife deaths.

Other suggestions include submitting anecdotes about a business’s lack of earnings, sick dogs or humans and the need to wash boats after using the river.

Volunteers are also needed to look at the Thames Water event duration monitoring map daily to log any spills or anomalies and collect water samples for the data to be analysed by scientists.

This includes Professor Leon Barron, who reads analytical and environmental sciences at Imperial College London, Randa Rachef, a researcher at King’s College London, Alex Lipp, an earth and environmental scientist at University College London and Andrew Singer, principal scientist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

Campaigners also want to obtain a new fluidium monitor to test the water leaving Fawley Stream, where the majority of sewage overflow comes from.

According to the Environment Agency, there were 23,061 sewage spills by Thames Water in 2024, with the average duration lasting 13 hours.

A total of 86 spills were recorded from Henley Sewage Treatment Works, near the Fawley stream, for a total duration of 950 hours.

Each group, club and individual will have a dedicated Google Drive folder to upload their evidence.

If an abatement notice is served, the water company must stop or mitigate the nuisance. If they don’t, then the council can prosecute.

The legal threshold is based on the frequency, severity and the impact of pollution. Water companies could argue that the discharge is permitted under a storm overflow licence, it’s a one-off event, or infrastructure upgrades are planned.

Thames Water said it plans to upgrade its Henley works in 2026.

Ms Reineke is hopeful that enough people will engage to initiate a notice. She said: “We need everybody to get involved with it, and we think we can do it. We want people to engage on the whole to clean the river, and this is a way for them to connect back to it, too.

“Thames Water is killing our businesses and people. People are giving up their moorings and selling their boats, it’s a disgrace.”

She wants data to be collected up and down the Thames to be submitted to local councils, including Wokingham Borough Council.

Ms Reineke said: “The idea is that lots of communities up and down the Thames will do the same thing, and we can give it to all the councils on the same day.

“We hope to be giving a massive body of evidence going in, so it can be really hard-hitting.

“If they don’t initiate a notice, it will still be a hard-hitting campaign to fix our river, and we can see how much there is to do.”

Deputy mayor Ian Reissmann, who attended the meeting, said: “It’s clear that Thames Water has failed to keep our river clean and it’s affecting our businesses, environment and people. There’s no excuse, so I was happy to see Laura continue to apply pressure and campaign.”

To join the campaign www.tiny
url.com/ytfpxwy5 and to donate, visit www.tinyurl.com/bdwfp48f