Hello, and welcome to Wild Wimmin the Wild Swimming Podcast, I’m Laura Macdonald. 

I’ve got a bit of a different episode for you today: two interviews both about the work of the Ilkley Clean River Group.  For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, Ilkley is a delightful little Spa town in West Yorkshire in the North of England, and running through Ilkley is the River Wharfe, which runs for 65 miles from its source in the Yorkshire Dales National Park until it joins the river Ouse.

First off today I’m speaking to Karen Shakleton who founded the Ilkley Clean River Group, after witnessing a Combined sewerage outflow in action. I also recorded a chat with swimmer, town councillor and all round excellent fellow Owen Wells about his life as an outdoor swimmer, his relationship to the river and the really shitty problems that bathers are encountering with river pollution.

Links:
Ilkley Clean River Group website, Facebook and Instagram.  There is a 'how to' section if you are interested in starting your own campaign.

SurfersAgainstSewage are doing a huge amount of work in this area and their website has a lot of excellent resources as well as links to campaigns with which you can get involved.

Guardian article about the 2020 Environment Agency data on CSO spillages.

The Rivers Trust - Rivers Fit to Swim In and  map of CSO locations

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Massive thanks to The Housecoat Project for allowing me to use their song Wild Wimmin as the theme music. "Wild Wimmin" : words + music by Meri St. Mary (Instagram). Performed by Housecoat Project @1988 Wide Eye Doo Dat on Subterranean Records: https://youtu.be/k5D2h-B-qDU

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