I fought the water company over sewage and was told no one has a legal right to swim in the sea

Shocked by the poor quality of my local swimming hole that made one of my friends seriously ill, I sought redress, writes Kit Yates – only to be told I should effectively ignore it and go to the beach anyway

The environmental charity Surfers Against Sewage says everyone in the UK deserves a beautiful coastline (Gareth Fuller/PA)

I’m a keen outdoor swimmer. I swim with a group of friends most weeks in our local stretch of the Thames. Come rain or shine, winter or summer, there are usually at least two of our number bracing the river waters north of Oxford.

We do so cautiously, however, especially in winter when it has been raining heavily and it is almost guaranteed that sewage will have been pumped into the river a few miles upstream.

And we’re not alone in taking precautions – even events such as the famous Oxford and Cambridge university Boat Race on the River Thames were affected this weekend, with one rower complaining about the amount of “poo in the water” and at least three competitors laid low with stomach bugs (River Action UK claims Thames Water is responsible for that one). Cambridge, the winning team, even eschewed their traditional “throw the cox in the water” schtick in favour of an excrement-free lift of their teammate, Hannah Murphy, up inside the boat.