Water fears force swim firm to shut

SWIMMING event organiser Henley Swim has been forced to close down, blaming publicity about the water quality of the River Thames for a “huge” drop in people entering.

The open-water swimming company, founded in 2004 by rowers Tom Kean and Jeremy Laming, announced it was “effectively bankrupt” in an email to entrants last Friday and said all of their events this year have been cancelled.

The company ran several events including the Henley Swim Festival, Thames Marathon from Henley to Marlow, the Club to Pub swim from Henley Rowing Club to the Angel on The Bridge in Thame Side and The Selkie Henley Classic along the regatta course.

Henley Swim said efforts to save the business by joining forces with other event organisers had failed leaving ‘no option’ other than to close down.

Last year, the firm’s annual festival saw more than 2,000 people take part. However, organisers said numbers were down because of concerns about the water quality and sewage spills.

According to the Environment Agency, a total of 86 spills were recorded from the Henley Sewage Treatment Works, near the Fawley stream last year, for a total duration of 950 hours.

The Henley Swim Festival was one of the events started by Mr Kean and Mr Laming after they began a tradition of swimming the Henley Royal Regatta course, which became the Henley Classic.

In a statement announcing the closure, Henley Swim said: “The relentless publicity about the quality of the water in the Thames has put thousands of people off the idea of open water swimming which has led to an unprecedented drop in the number of registrations. We are very grateful for the fantastic support of loyal and enthusiastic swimmers, volunteers and suppliers and we are so sorry that after 20 years Henley Swim has been forced to close down due to circumstances beyond our control.

“The company has only ever existed to provide safe, wonderful open water swimming events here in the Thames at Henley. The directors have put thousands of pounds into the company and have never taken a dividend. We do not have the reserves to be able to weather such a dramatic down-turn in revenue, through no fault of our own.”

Water companies are legally allowed to release untreated wastewater under certain conditions, such as after heavy rainfall, to prevent the sewage system from being overwhelmed.

But dry spills, when untreated wastewater spills straight into rivers when there has been no rain, are illegal as they can lead to higher concentrations of sewage.

Mike Whitworth, 67, a long distance triathlete from Swim to Live which provides swim coaching, said he was saddened by the announcement having taken part in their events for several years. He said: “It’s really sad that all the publicity on the water quality has forced this position. As a centre for open water swimming, Henley Events was one of the first to really put on five star events.” Jo Robb, the South Oxfordshire District Council’s river champion and a Green Party member, said more needs to be done to address river pollution

Mrs Robb, who lives in Rotherfield Greys is also a member of the Henley Mermaids. She said: “There’s so much more we need to do to address river pollution and to provide swimmers and river users with real information about water quality so they can make informed choices about whether or not to swim.

“It remains the case Thames Water is discharging untreated sewage outside of lawful circumstances and we need to have information about when this is happening. But the vast majority of time, along this stretch, people can enjoy beautiful, quality water and safe conditions.”

Laura Reineke, founder of Friends of the Thames and a Henley Mermaid said she was ‘desperately sad’ that  Henley Swim has closed.

“I think it's disgraceful people's livelihoods, savings and investments are lost due to the utter failure of a water monopoly and a government that is refusing to put Thames Water into special administration.”

In a statement, Thames Water said it was committed to ‘seeing waterways thrive but farming, industry, road runoff, wildlife and increasingly extreme weather play a ‘role’ in river health.