Residents in a North Yorkshire market town are protesting over what they say is months of sewage flowing into their once beautiful river.

People in Richmond have formed a campaign group, called 'Save Our Swale' (SoS), to try to clean the waterway they love.

They remember when they could see straight to the bottom of the River Swale through crystal clear water.

Now they describe a layer of "green slime" coating the riverbed, floating beige foam and visible "clouds of effluence" floating downstream.

Residents will discuss ways in which they can save the river at a public meeting in Richmond Town Hall.

The Northern Echo: Brown foam seen on the surface of the river Swale

Hilary Plews, a SoS member, said: "It all started with a few local people who noticed that the river, which we thought was pristine, wasn't any more.

"I used to be able to see the stones at the bottom of the river but now they are all covered in a layer of green slime.

"You can smell the river now. We just thought we should get together and talk about what we can do.

"The water companies aren't doing enough, they are putting sewage into our rivers at an alarming rate.

"We want to discuss applying for bathing status or even refusing to pay the sewage part of our water bills.

"Why pay for a service that we are not getting?"

Anglers in the area were among the first to begin to worry about the health of the River Swale. 

They have been monitoring the water since last September and hope to be able to share their analysis shortly.

Ron Wood, development officer of the Richmond Angling society, described being able to watch sewage being pumped into the river.

He said: "Water companies are not supposed to discharge any sewage when the river is running low. 

"The River Swale has been at an incredibly low level for a while and you can go to the Easby storm overflow pipe and watch the sewage coming out.

"If you want to see pollution in action that's the place to do it.

"You can see clouds of effluence going down the river."

Mr Wood has been a resident in Richmond for 35 years and he wants to see large coordinated action from locals.

He added: "Our Facebook page gets messages from people all the time asking us what the smell is or seeing horrible foam.

"The Richmond Facebook group has 9000 people in it and we need every one of them to get involved and make this an issue for the water companies."

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A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: "Tackling overflows, which were designed into the system as a relief, is a priority for us, but it is also a significant task.

"In Yorkshire, we have over 2,200 overflows and we know replumbing the whole of Yorkshire is not a quick fix as it would be both significantly disruptive and costly to customers.

"We’ve now launched a project that will see £180m spent on storm overflow improvements in the next two years.

"This will target the overflows we know are operating more frequently and for longer.

"Our teams are already on the ground working on the first of these overflows and the investment will help to reduce discharges by at least 20 per cent, but in most cases, we'll be going way beyond that and reduce them significantly."

The campaign group can be contacted using #saveourswale or their Facebook page.

The public meeting will take place at Richmond Town Hall on Wednesday, July 12 at 7pm.