At Becky Malby’s home in one of Britain’s prettiest towns, powerful figures in the water industry and politicians met four years ago to talk about the country’s first official swimming river.
Held in the campaigner’s garden in the market town of Ilkley, West Yorkshire, Jonson Cox, the Ofwat chair, Liz Barber, Yorkshire Water chief executive, the local Tory MP Robbie Moore and officials had to observe the pandemic’s two-metre social distancing rules.
Instead of a PowerPoint presentation, they gathered around enormous, data-laden boards showing the state of the River Wharfe. Just six months earlier there had been jubilation when a section of it at Ilkley was designated England’s first inland bathing water.
Cromwheel at Ilkley was designated England’s first inland bathing water in 2020
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOP
