Therese Coffey mocked for posing at muddy estuary listed as 'wild swimming' area

10 April 2023 , 14:54

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Therese Coffey posed for a picture on the banks of the River Deben in Suffolk

A Tory minister has been mocked after posing next to a muddy estuary - after it was designated an official "wild swimming" area.

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey shared a picture of herself standing next to the River Deben estuary in Suffolk.

It is one of four "designated bathing sites" announced by the Government, and comes amid widespread concerns about water pollution.

Bad weather in recent days means it doesn't look a spot that will appeal to many planning to take a dip, with the cabinet member photoed standing in front of sludge.

Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner couldn't resist having a pop, posting: "Not taking a dip yourself?"

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Comments were disabled on Ms Coffey's post, which read: "4 new designated bathing sites confirmed today, including Waldringfield on the River Deben in Suffolk Coastal - the first estuary site."

Angela Rayner asked the minister if she was taking a dip herself (Gary Roberts Photography/REX/Shutterstock)

Comedy writer Adam Kay wrote: "After you."

And Nigel Pickover, former editor of the Eastern Daily Press newspaper, pointed out that the site is close to a creek where E coli was found, seemingly due to sewage.

He wrote: "Isn’t the Waldringfield site just a few swimming strokes downstream from the heavily-polluted Martlesham Creek with its huge E-Coli issues?"

Last week The Mirror reported that almost a million hours worth of sewage discharges occurred across coastal constituencie s last year, new figures have found.

The Labour Party analysed data from the Environment Agency (EA) which it says shows 141,777 sewage dumping events across 137 of a total of 139 coastal constituencies in England and Wales in 2022. It is the equivalent of an discharge once every three minutes and 45 seconds, adding up to a combined total of 980,999 hours, equivalent to more than 111 years.

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Shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon said people who live by the coast “should be able to just enjoy the place where they live without having to worry about encountering filthy raw sewage”.

He accused the Conservatives of allowing communities to be treated as “open sewers”.

Today the Government announced three areas had been added the country's list of bathing waters.

These are Sykes Lane Bathing Beach, Rutland Water; Whitwell Creek, Rutland Water; Firestone Bay, Plymouth and the River Deben Estuary in Waldringfield.

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Following a consultation the Government said: "We acknowledge that any beach, lake or river is potentially hazardous for bathers.

"Bathing water monitoring measures the level of bacteria in the water but does not imply that the area is safer than any other water body.

"The objective of the regulations is to protect bathers’ health by driving improvement to water quality. Water quality at bathing waters is monitored for intestinal enterococci and E. coli, which are faecal indicator organisms showing whether pollution from sewage, livestock or urban sources such as misconnected drains is present in the water."

Dave Burke