Welcome to the award winning Ilkley Chat!

Town meeting to discuss River Wharfe pollution

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Ilkley Residents are invited to an open town meeting next Thursday to discuss what can be done to clean up the River Wharfe, who is responsible and who should act.

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‘The Solution is Less Pollution’ organised by the Ilkley Clean River Campaign, will be held at Ilkley Grammar School on Thursday, 7 February, between 5:30-7:30pm.

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You will have seen on Ilkley Chat and other local and national media how concerned Ilkley and Burley residents are about the impact on our wildlife and people and animals swimming in the river from the raw sewage discharges into the Wharfe at Ilkley Sewage works. This meeting is a chance to find out more about the issues and also see what we can do as a community to prevent it.

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Becky Malby from the ICR campaign said ‘The Town Council and John Grogan MP have met with the Environment Agency (EA) and Yorkshire Water and have been active in trying to get the problem solved, but it’s proving to be one of those issues where its tricky to find out who is responsible and who should act.’

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‘The town meeting will discuss how to protect the Wharfe and town environment in the face of very slow progress and get to the bottom of who should be taking responsibility for the water quality in our river.’

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Becky added, ‘Everyone is welcome to attend, we are really pleased to welcome the Yorkshire Rivers Trust, Friends of Ilkley Moor, The Wharfedale Naturalists, Wildlife Friendly Otley, Salmon and Trout Conservation, Addingham Environment Group and Wharefedale Tackles Plastics.’

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There will be an opportunity for residents to put their concerns and questions to the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water.  Councillor’s from Ilkley Town Council and John Grogan MP will also be in attendance.

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So organisers have an idea of numbers, if you are planning to attend you are ask to register at   ilkleytownenvironmentmeeting.eventbrite.co.uk