10/08/2026
TINKER BROOK: THE FULL TEST RESULTS 💧
In June, we told you about raw sewage being discharged by United Utilities into Tinker Brook in Oswaldtwistle. That post reached over 16,000 of you. You clearly care about what's happening to our water.
We didn't just post about it and move on. We got to work.
Since then, I've been working with a qualified chemist, a local environmental charity, and the Ribble Rivers Trust to carry out proper professional water testing at two sites on the brook. The results are now in.
Here's what we found:
⚠️ PHOSPHATE: - these were 2-5x above safe levels.
Site G (upstream of the weir near the scout huts): 0.25 ppm.
Site S (Foxhill Bank): 0.23 ppm. For a watercourse like Tinker Brook, good ecological status requires below 0.05 - 0.10 ppm. Both sites are way over.
⚠️ SEWAGE FUNGUS: - at the access point where children regularly play. It's Latin name is "Sphaerotilus natans" a brown, furry bacterial growth that forms in response to chronic sewage pollution. Recorded by a professional chemist at Site G, the exact spot where local kids paddle and play. I photographed it myself today. It's still there.
DRY-WEATHER CSO DISCHARGE: - This is illegal!
On the night of 9-10th June, sewage was discharged for 1 hour 41 minutes. I checked the weather records. It was clear and dry. Combined Sewer Overflows are only legally permitted during exceptional rainfall.
E Coli -
⚠️35 times above the safe limit! ⚠️
- Site G (upstream of the weir near the scout huts) - 35,100 CFU per 100ml.
- Site S (Foxhill Bank) - 10,000 CFU per 100ml.
The Environment Agency classes any site regularly above 1,000 as unfit to swim. Site G is thirty-five times over the safe limit. This is the spot where children play. Foxhill Bank 10 times over the safe limit.
This is not acceptable!
───
Let me be clear about what this means. Contact with water contaminated at these levels can cause gastroenteritis, vomiting, diarrhoea, skin and ear infections. In Devon recently, around eight children were hospitalised after paddling near a similar CSO discharge. This is not abstract. This is about our kids.
This is why the Green Party is committed to bringing water back into public ownership. United Utilities made £631.5 million profit last year while dumping sewage into our brooks and rivers. Shareholders received £226 million in dividends. This privatised model has failed.
Water should be run for people and planet, not for profit.
What Hyndburn Greens are doing next:
- We can now report this to the Environment Agency as a pollution incident. The evidence is sufficient. We will also be making a formal complaint to United Utilities.
What you can do:
✍️ Sign the petition - there's over 300,000 have already. It will be debated in Parliament on 14 September.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/end-the-profit-driven-sewage-pollution-scandal-1?source=rawlink&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=rawlink&share=73430d47-1288-4d5a-aec1-521489a22807
💧 Check your own local waterways: sewagemap.co.uk
🌊 Join Surfers Against Sewage: sas.org.uk
📧 Email your MP Sarah Smith, Member of Parliament for Hyndburn and Haslingden, at [email protected]
Want to know if your local river is polluted?
Join in the national testing, citizen science event organised by Avaaz/Earthwatch WaterBlitz: on 18–21 September. You can get a free testing kit and all data feeds into national map supporting UK Water Bill. Fir information:-
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/campaigns/uk_waterblitz_4_0/
Thank you:
To Abbie, the local resident who first raised the alarm and who has worked tirelessly alongside us. To Alice Pooley, the qualified chemist who volunteered her expertise. To the Prospects Foundation for their support. And to the Ribble Rivers Trust for providing professional testing equipment and analysis.
Read the Green Party's plan: https://greenparty.org.uk/about/our-manifesto/bringing-nature-back-to-life
