Stop Ure Pollution began with an editorial in the Upper Wensleydale Newsletter in March 2024 which asked:
‘What do the Wharfe, the Nidd and the Swale have that our Ure doesn’t? The first three have groups of volunteers who are monitoring those rivers with the aim of reducing pollution. Surely it is time we also had such a group.’
There was such a large response that on April 30 the Association of Rural Communities sponsored a meeting at Leyburn Methodist Church Hall – and 120 people came. An interim committee prepared the way for the meeting on June 25 at which Stop Ure Pollution was officially inaugurated with Prof Richard Loukota as its chairman.
Following that over 50 people volunteered to be citizen scientists working with Stop Ure Pollution and the Yorkshire Dales River Trust (YDRT) in August and October to test the water of the River Ure and some of its tributaries. See News and Results for further details.
Below: training with Mary Boyd of YDRT ready to start sampling the waters of the river. With thanks to Lord Bolton for allowing us to use Lord's Bridge on the Bolton Estate for the training day and subsequent water sampling.
