THE MP for Taunton and Wellington has undertaken a water quality test on the River Tone as part of an effort to better safeguard public health.

On, Friday, June 27, MP for Taunton and Wellington Gideon Amos, conducted a live water quality test at French Weir Park on the River Tone in Taunton to demonstrate the “urgent need” for real-time, frequent testing to protect local communities.

The test found that the river was high risk for bathing at the time of testing.

Although the River Tone was designated as an official bathing spot last year, following a campaign led by the MP, current testing regimes reportedly do not provide the public with real-time information on water safety.

Traditional methods rely on periodic sampling, with results taking up to 48 hours, meaning contamination is often detected too late, after swimmers and bathers have already been exposed.

Mr Amos said: “The benefit of the work local people did with me to apply for and win Bathing Water Status is that we now have monitoring of the river and for the first time the water quality is published for all to see. But official monitoring takes time, and people would really benefit from knowing what water quality is like before they go in.

“To have this near real-time information is definitely what people want if they're thinking about using a river – whether that's boating, kayaking, canoeing or swimming.

Mr Amos added: “We want to stop pollution being pumped into rivers and one way to do that is to expose the levels of pollution with monitoring like this.

“Then we can get the investment to stop those sewage outfalls going into our rivers – that's something we Liberal Democrats care about and residents in Taunton and Wellington care about as well.”