Occasionally, I get quite upset about the water quality of our rivers. This is why. I first went fishing when I was about 7 years old, taken by my grandfather. I used to fish in many places, including the Thames. Later I fished in the Lea, streams in Somerset, the Nene, and a number of other places. When I moved to Burton, within walking distance of the Trent, I was looking forward to fishing in one of the UK’s most famous rivers. I don’t fish regularly any more, just for the odd day out. I’m a fair weather fisherman. It’s also an excuse to relax in the sun, and watch the wildlife. Last year I made friends with a frog, some ducks and swans, and watched a water vole – there aren’t as many of these around as there used to be.

You can imagine, this year, I was really looking forward to the start of the season on June 16th, especially as the weather was fine. I did notice the water was not as clear as usual, as it had been raining the week before. And I went again two days later. I hadn’t caught anything, but was happily fishing away, drowning maggots, when my hook snagged on some weed. I pulled my line, and up came the weed. I noticed some brown stuff caught in the weed, and immediately realised it was NOT a lump of mud, but something much less sanitary. I packed up soon after, and haven’t been back since.

It's the first time in over 70 years that I’ve ever had this experience, and I don’t feel inclined to fish in any of the UK’s rivers any more. I might find a lake that’s not near a sewage outlet, but I’ll steer clear of rivers until the water quality improves, a lot!

When the water supply was privatised, the expectation was that private capital would come in and fund the improvement necessary to upgrade our creaking, Victorian water treatment systems. And, if they didn’t, we’d be able to sue them – so they had to do it!

It turns out that they needed a return on their investment, as would anyone. To make the numbers add up they would have to raise the price of water to a politically unacceptable level. And it turns out that any fine levied on them just gets passed back to the customers. That’s why I’m not expecting much improvement any time soon.