Our application to SEPA for bathing waters was submitted earlier this year. Over the summer with the help of River Almond Action Group and the Friends of Almondell we have been out surveying the area applied for to see how people use the River Almond as it passes through Almondell & Calderwood Country Park. We have also been out chatting to people in the park over the summer, and we have a survey about the bathing waters application that we have asked people to complete to give us an idea of the public’s thoughts on the application. Below are some responses we have had from people about the application. If you haven’t completed the survey yet and you’d like to help us out with the application by sharing your thoughts, click here.
Many people are very positive about the application and the area:
“Think it’s a great idea.”
“it’s a gorgeous spot throughout the year.”
“Fabulous that this popular area of the park river will be designated for swimming/bathing without having the fear of catching anything from the water to make you ill. Will look forward to being able to take a proper swim one day!”
“I love being able to go for a paddle at this area, it is just perfect. And the two step kids love it too.”
“This would be a wonderful step forwards for the area.”
“Will encourage others, including myself to use the river for swimming.”
“Would love the see the river cleaned up in general. We visit other rivers in Scotland which are stunning in comparison.”
“I do not drive and have used the river almond walks since coming to Livingston in 1972. I have taken up wild swimming and have longed for this opportunity for a very long time and hope approval is passed.”
“We have been coming here for years ever since I was little and have always had loads of fun and now I am an adult with kids I bring my kids to do the same.”
“Beautiful natural area which my children have enjoyed playing in. Would be amazing if this could be pollution free for all the community to enjoy.”
“Absolutely support this application. I’ve lived near the almond all my life. Enabling it to be a swimming river would be outstanding for my mental and physical health.”
Many people shared with us memories of playing in the river when they were younger:
“We used to swim in the Almond frequently in the 1980s further downstream to onwards Crammond. My dad and all his brothers be and sisters did in the 50s and 60s. It was their playground. I would very much like my children to have the same experiences and now we live so close to the Almond at Roman Camps, it is a real possibility. It is so important for my children to get to know how to be in the river safely and also having fun. Good educational posters and perhaps sessions for kids would be great.”
“Played there throughout my childhood, then with my children and now my grandchildren.”
“I have lived in Livingston for over 50 years and spent many summer days picnicking and swimming/playing in the river.”
“One of my fondest memories is swimming in this river with a good friend of mine when we were kids. We were taught about the plants and wildlife that the area has to offer and it has stuck with me to this day.”
Understandably, many people are worried about the pollution issues in the Almond due to releases from Combined Sewer Overflows at the Wastewater Treatment Works upstream:
“I live very close (about 500m from the bridge) and walk my dog in the park everyday. We moved here because of the lovely park and had dreams of going swimming. I have never swam or paddled here because of the sewage and stopped letting my dog go in the water about 4 years ago. It’s a real shame as we moved down from Aberdeen where the rivers are in such good condition and used to swim in them every summer.”
“I would expect rivers contaminated with industrial and agricultural effluent and raw sewage to be a Third World problem, not in the 5th largest economy in the world. It should be a significant embarrassment to us all that our rivers and particularly for this application, the River Almond, is unfit to swim in. I strongly support this Bathing Water Application, to reclaim our river for our leisure, our health, our safety and our children.”
“When I was young, we used to swim in the Almond in the summer holidays. I wouldn’t even paddle in it now, it’s filthy.”
“I would like to know my kids can paddle here with no risk to their health.”
“I have grown up in Livingston all my life. I’ve told my kids that for a large part of it my parents never had a car and we would spend lots of our summer holidays down the Almond swimming, boating with a rubber dingy and catching frogs and minnows. They couldn’t believe that people used to canoe up and down the river near the skatepark. I would love to feel that the river was clean enough in the future to take my child swimming in it again.”
These issues with the water quality are the main motivation for the bathing waters application. If the application is successful, it will mean that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency must put stricter limits on the number of pollution events from the wastewater treatment works, increase water testing, and make up-to-date water quality information available to the public. Achieving bathing water status will help to make the Almond safer for the people who use it and the wildlife that we share it with.
To help us out with the application by sharing your thoughts, click here: