Warning issued over swimming in the River Thames after Sadiq Khan's pledge to clean it up
City Hall has issued a warning over Sadiq Khan's ambitions to make the River Thames 'swimmable' by 2034. A spokesperson for the Mayor of London has said that the tidal portion of the river will never be safe to swim in, despite his pledge to clean up the city’s waterways.
Mr Khan had stated in his manifesto during last year’s mayoral elections that he intended to make rivers within London swimmable within ten years. City Hall documents from last week stated that many of the 41 rivers in London are polluted, according to the Rivers Trust.
The topic was discussed at an environment committee meeting for City Hall on January 9. Grace Rawnsley, director of sustainability at the Port of London Authority (PLA), said at the meeting that there had been 31 deaths in 2023 from people willingly and accidentally entering the tidal portion of the Thames, as well as 109 rescues in 2022.
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The PLA representative said at the meeting: "We have worked really, really hard over the last 15 years to reduce the number of deaths that we get in the Thames. Every year, people die by going into the water in the tidal Thames."
She added: "It’s about doing it in a safe way and certainly in the tidal Thames, we would always be not encouraging that. But I think when we get headlines like, 'Swimmable Thames', it does mean that people think it is safe to swim in and so it is really important to have that messaging about how you do that safely."
Ms Rawnsley said the messaging around the new scheme was very important and that the PLA would be happy to work with the Mayor and GLA to make it clear where it is safe to swim. She said the PLA was a founding member of the Tidal Thames Water Safety Forum, working with emergency services such as the London Fire Brigade and the Met Police to promote safety in the river.
She added: "We want to ensure that there are as few deaths as possible in the River Thames and so I think if we can get that messaging right so that people are not jumping in places they should not be jumping in, I think that is really key."
Chris Romer-Lee, co-founder of Studio Octopi Architects, plans to create a lido on the river as part of the Thames Baths project. He said at the meeting that the River Thames was both London’s largest and least accessible public space. Ms Rawnsley added that the PLA permits swimming in the Thames in the western end of the city from Putney to Teddington Lock, despite not encouraging it.
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London told MyLondon: "The Thames and its tributaries are the lifeblood of London, which the Mayor is committed to cleaning up and protecting so that all Londoners can safely enjoy the benefits of nature – including swimming where safe to do so."
They added: "The tidal part of the Thames will never be safe to swim in, but the Port of London Authority is responsible for ensuring this water is more generally safe and accessible to the public. The Mayor was delighted that the Port of London Authority joined him in pledging to turn the tide on our neglected waterways."
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