Thank you to everyone who attended the RevIvel AGM on Saturday 20th September. We had a good turnout of members and supporters.
AGM attendees were given an update on RevIvel’s recent campaigns and activities. This was followed by a walk down to the upper River Ivel to see progress with installing a flow monitoring station.
The BBC reported last month that Anglian Water faces a fine of £62.8m for a “serious breach” in how the company managed its sewage works.
“This is a serious breach and is unacceptable.”
The full BBC article is available here: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2vyl22rjvo
The website Top Of The Poops (https://top-of-the-poops.org/) has highlighted Anglian Water for pollution of the River Great Ouse in 2024. The website calculated that Anglian Water dumped sewage into the River Great Ouse for 17,602hours last year.
Anglian Water is responsible for managing the public sewage treatment network across the entire River Ivel catchment area.
Anglian Water states “Your feedback is very important to us we’d love to hear your thoughts on how we’re doing. We will make sure that your feedback is passed on to the right people” If you would like to contact Anglian Water, the link to its online feedback form is here: https://www.anglianwater.co.uk/your-feedback/
27th August 2025
Sewagemap.co.uk indicates two sewage releases into the River Flit at Toddington and Clophill. Both releases happened at an Anglian Water waste water facility in the late afternoon. Duration of each release ~45minutes.
The River Flit is a tributary of the Ivel. If you live along the River Flit or River Ivel and see signs of raw sewage contamination, please report the incident to the Environment Agency. The EA’s incident hotline can be contacted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 0800 807060 . Thank you.
John Craven is a much loved BBC tv personality and long-time presenter of BBC Country File.
Recently John put down his thoughts about the UK’s current river pollution problem in an opinion article. A link to the BBC Country File article is here: https://www.countryfile.com/people/opinion/water-pollution-uk
Last week RevIvel was excited to host a group of Xylem Analytics employees at Radwell Mill.
Xylem Inc. is a world-leading water monitoring solutions company. The Xylem Analytics UK team at Letchworth provides high-quality water testing equipment that measures and monitors water, both drinking and wastewater. Xylem Analytics enables customers to make the most informed decisions relating to water quality, quantity and flow, in order to protect the aquatic environment.
Xylem has a social responsibility program called “Xylem Watermark”. Part of its mission is to increase community awareness of the importance of protecting natural water resources. At Radwell, the Xylem team spent the day demonstrating their water monitoring equipment and measuring the water quality of the upper River Ivel.
More details about Xylem can be found here: https://www.xylem.com/en-uk/
A huge thank you to everyone at Xylem in Letchworth, for taking the time to visit the River Ivel at Radwell.
Introduction
The River Ivel is formed of at least eighteen tributaries scattered across Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. A sewage spill into any of these tributaries will eventually contaminate the River Ivel. Those communities living in Biggleswade, Sandy, and Tempsford are more likely to be impacted by sewage pollution in the Ivel as they are furthest downstream.
However, it is important that all communities, that live along the Ivel and its tributaries, understand the scale and frequency of sewage spills into their local waterways.
Regulatory Reporting
UK water companies are now legally required to report all sewage spills in real-time. But! They are not yet required to report monthly spill data. RevIvel volunteers use various water company and community-funded websites to extract monthly spill data for the River Ivel and its tributaries.
July 2025 Data
In July 2025, thirteen Anglian Water locations reported a sewage spill. The combined duration of these spills was 24hrs 18mins. A summary table of each spill location is below. Note that all these spill locations happened directly into the River Ivel or one of its tributaries.
The worst top-five spill locations were at Flitton, Henlow, St. Ippollitts, Sandy, and Baldock. The date of the sewage discharges coincided with local heavy rainstorms and is an indication that the wastewater infrastructure is insufficient to support growing communities within the River Ivel catchment area.
Data
Sewage Spill Websites
RevIvel encourages everyone to review the live sewage spill data on these sites, especially at times of heavy and prolonged rainfall.
Top Of The Poops Site: https://top-of-the-poops.org/
UK Sewage Map Site: https://www.sewagemap.co.uk/
Anglian Water Spills Site: https://www.anglianwater.co.uk/environment/storm-overflows/storm-overflow-map/
Former 1980’s Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey has today spoken out about the reduction in flow of the River Lee in Hertfordshire. Feargal is a keen angler and huge supporter of Chalk Stream groups, including RevIvel.
Please read the itv news article here: https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2025-08-18/feargal-sharkey-accuses-environment-agency-of-unmatched-vandalism-of-river
The Bedford Independent newspaper has published a shocking article on the current pollution levels in the River Great Ouse.
BedsGOVET (The Bedfordshire Great Ouse Valley Environmental Trust – https://www.bedsgovet.org/) is a local community organisation that has been monitoring the water quality of the Great Ouse.
Extracts from the news article –
In 2024 the dumping of partially or untreated sewage for an outrageous 4300 hours (the equivalent of six months continuous discharging) was recorded from the two main outlets at Odell and Bedford, with the latter failing to inform the Environment Agency on over 70% of its discharges.
8 out of 16 sites tested by our volunteers on Monday, 21 July, between Turvey and Great Barford, the levels of e coli were either above or worryingly above the safe bathing standard, with Cardington Lock, frequently used by wild swimmers, recording 4000 E- coli cfus/100mls.
The full news article is available here: https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/monthly-column-updates-from-riverfield-community-meeting-about-river-great-ouse-water-quality/
Re-establishing a native brown trout population in the River Ivel is dependent upon a clean and healthy River Great Ouse.
The size of the River Ivel catchment is a surprise to most people. The Ivel itself runs north from Baldock (N.Herts) to Tempsford (Beds), where it joins the River Great Ouse. Along the way, many smaller tributaries join the River Ivel. These include the Flit, Hit, Hiz, Pix, and Purwell.
The River Ivel catchment includes the towns of Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock, Stotfold, Flitwick, Ampthill, Shefford, Biggleswade, and Sandy. A pollution spill in the rivers or brooks running though any of these urban centres will eventually impact the River Ivel.
RevIvel needs the help of its members to raise the awareness of the plight of the Ivel across the entire River Ivel catchment area. If you have friends and family living within the catchment area, please ask them to consider joining a local river group. Thank you.
