Council asks for 'no poo in our rivers'

Councillors say they do not want human waste being released into the River Great Ouse

A council is to ask the Environment Agency to introduce a bylaw preventing sea toilets from being emptied in a river.

East Cambridgeshire District Council will write to the organisation asking it to bring in the rules on the River Great Ouse.

Sea toilets are facilities on some boats from which human waste is emptied manually by a pump, either directly into the water or into a holding tank.

A lack of nationwide regulation currently allows boat users to empty them into the tidal river, but bylaws preventing this can be introduced by the Environment Agency.

"I think we can all agree that we shouldn’t have poo in our rivers," said Liberal Democrat councillor Kathrin Holtzmann, who brought the motion, supported by members from across the council.

Liberal Democrat opposition leader Lorna Dupré, who seconded it, said the river was "a jewel in the crown" of Ely but that its condition was attracting concern.

The authority's Conservative leader Anna Bailey said she also welcomed the motion and highlighted that the council provided free services for the emptying of boat toilets at various places along the river.

The river hosted the University Boat Race in 2021

The River Great Ouse, which rises in Northamptonshire and meets the North Sea at The Wash, is popular with boaters and rowers.

In 2021 the University Boat Race between Cambridge and Oxford took place on a section of the river, due to strict social distancing rules during the Covid pandemic and repair work to Hammersmith Bridge in London.