Wyke beck seriously polluted.

As announced at the recent meeting, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has started a project on the streams of the mid-Calder and the HSS has been invited to participate in some of the practical work and also in providing records of wildlife.

Sadly, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's previous project in the Calder Valley, the Clifton Beck/ Wyke Beck catchment was dealt a serious blow recently. On Saturday13th July we were at the Wyke Beck just upstream of Bailiff Bridge. The beck was grey-white with household drain water and smelled strongly of drains.

It's very annoying because we have known this as a beautiful little trout stream with Kingfishers nesting in the banks. They almost certainly wont be there now.


I reported it on Saturday evening to the EA and got an incident no. 1718487 kindly given to me by an EA official. You can ring their pollution hotline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's easy to find online.

The point we saw the pollution in the Wyke Beck was just north of Victoria Rd., Bailiff Bridge, SE1467925534.