Urgent improvements needed to improve River Cam water quality
The Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Cambridge, Cheney Payne, has written to Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner and Anglian Water calling for immediate action to improve water quality in the River Cam, following the latest official classification of the Sheep's Green designated bathing area as 'Poor'.
The stretch of the Cam at Sheep's Green — one of 450 designated bathing sites across England — has been rated among the worst in the country for water quality, with high levels of E. coli and other faecal bacteria consistently recorded throughout the bathing season.
Cheney Payne said:
"The River Cam is one of Cambridge's greatest assets. People have swum, rowed and punted on it for centuries, and they deserve to be able to do so safely. This 'poor' rating is disappointing but not surprising — and the good news is that we now have the tools to fix it.
"The Liberal Democrats were proud to support the campaign to designate Sheep's Green as an official bathing water site. That designation is already making a difference: it places a legal duty on Anglian Water and the Environment Agency to investigate and remedy the sources of pollution.
"The water recycling centre at Haslingfield has been identified as a major source of the pollution reaching the Cam. Anglian Water has committed £20–30 million to improvements there, but their completion date of April 2028 means three more summers in which Cambridge residents are advised not to swim in their own river. That is simply not acceptable."
The sewage treatment from Haslingfield also discharges into the River Rhee, which is a chalk stream tributary of the Cam. South Cambridgeshire MP Pippa Heylings recently brought forward a Bill to nominate chalk streams as UNESCO natural world heritage sites. This Bill had its first reading in Parliament in April.
Cheney Payne has written to Daniel Zeichner MP asking him to use his experience as a former DEFRA Minister to press the Government and the Environment Agency to hold Anglian Water to account, and to Anglian Water to ask them to investigate interim measures to reduce pollution before the end of the 2026 bathing season.
The campaign is part of the Liberal Democrats' national Stop Sewage drive, which is calling for water companies — including Anglian Water — to clean up their own mess. The party is campaigning to replace the failed regulator Ofwat with a new Clean Water Authority, ban water company executive bonuses until sewage dumping ends, and introduce a Sewage Tax on water company profits to fund clean-up of the most polluted rivers and coastlines. The Clean Water Bill was included in the King’s Speech and Liberal Democrat MP’s will be pushing for the scale of change needed to meet the scandal.