Swimmers

[Rupert]

Sounds like the sailors need to meet with the swimmers and explain the dangers.

[ent228]

Down here on the Dart we are having long distance swims, from Totnes to Stoke Gabriel for instance and there are quite a few people practising. I almost ran one down last year, he was by himself in the middle of the river. He had on a black swimming cap and it was evening. Gave me quite a shock.

I can remember Oxford Sailing club banned swimming when I raced there in the early 80's, as humans would pollute the water......dead fish and dead sea gulls and dead sheep do not do this apparently.

I remember stinking hot days on the water and being shouted at for capsizing unnecessarily. Windsurfers had to wear drysuits.

Swimming should be encouraged on any clean water.

Up at Buchfastleigh on the Dart, MVV a German energy company is trying to build an incinerator bottom ash recycling plant. The ash will come from the new Plymouth incinerator, the plan is to mature the ash using rain and then to discharge leachate into the Dean brook which runs into the Dart. It will be full of interesting pollutants.

So having got most of the sewage removed from the Dart and it nicely swimmable we may now have heavy metal pollution.

MVV does not operate in Germany because they are a "dirty" company and cannot meet German environmental standards so they work in areas of lower standards such as the UK. Ho Humm......what fun.

[Ed]

@ent228

that is horrible. Is there any information on the web about this? What stage of development is the project in? What has been done to stop it? Would really love to know more.

eib

[trebor]

I have just been informed by email that their will be no sailing saturday, their were apparently in excess of 500 swimmers last night and the council feels that due to numbers they will be unable to control situation, due to an EDL demonstration no Police will be available to help.

[Nessa]

Local news reports two swimmer drowned in a gravel piut near Kings Lynn. Totally separate incidents. The police might need to change their thinking.

[Nigel]

Put on a white coat, buy a book of raffle tickets and charge them each £1

I knew an old boy many years ago who put on a coat, opened a field gate and stood there all morning collecting money for the cheap parking for the county show.

Amazing what you can get away with

[trebor]

a group of irate members are going to sail anyway, I am going away this weekend or I may have gone with them( probably would ), be warned this could happen to your club.

[Michael Brigg]

It pains me to say it, but perhaps the French have the right approach here. Laissez faire and acceptance that anyone can risk their life if they want to. Reduction of damages if personal contributory negligence is evident....

Then of course there is this!....

[Alan P.]

Spot on Michael. I've really taken to the French angle on health and safety etc etc. We are all treated like adults.

As for places to swim, well take your pick. Mines the Med off a 2+km stretch of naturist beach.
Surely it's still too cold in Blighty for swimming even with cloths on or has something gone off script with the "summer"?

[Pat]

Alan - for a local comparison it feels hotter in Blighty than it was in the Tarn & Carcassonne last summer!
And Brits aren't used to it and when the beer's in the wit's out.

Rob - could your club claim money back from the council or landlord if they aren't able to use the sailing water they've paid for?

[trebor]

Hi Pat, Sandwell council charges for everything to do with sailing, if you have your own boat you have to have a water licence which is £50, etc, the problem regarding complaining about money is we have the use of a cathedral sized building for a peppercorn rent.

[Bill-Conner]

I see sailing at Thames Sailing Club is delayed this Sunday because of the "Hampton Court Swim", plenty of water up strweam that is not sailed on I should have thought!

[ent228]

@Ed

The Buckfastleigh community forum has a lot of useful info on the Incinerator Bottom Ash issue.

http://www.community.buckfastleigh.org/

Today is the last day of the enquiry, MVV have been given a very rough ride, so we believe that it may all come to nothing.

However that leaves the issue of Plymouth City Council who have given permission for an incinerator in the dockyard by MVV and who have failed to address the issue of what will happen to the IBA.......they will have to find somewhere else to deal with it. Anymore quarries up and down the A38 corridor? Do you have a big hole near you? If so Plymouth waste may be comming your way. Oh, lastly MVV intended to put low level nuclear waste into the system as well.

[JimC]

If so Plymouth waste may be comming your way. Oh, lastly MVV intended to put low level nuclear waste into the system as well. :)

Low level nuclear waste is about as radioactive as rainwater off the moors...

[trebor]

if the waste keeps swimmers away, send a couple of tons our way ( only joking ), 2013 and we are still having to fight chemical waste, incinerators and nuclear waste, it appears that all the various protests over the last 50 years have learned the general public nothing.