This is a tale of love. Love that comes from the residents of a little coastal town called Combe Martin. As with all good stories this one starts with a tale of woe but keep reading and you’ll see how much a community who cares can give a story a happy ending.
We have all heard how humans are polluting their sea with environmentally unfriendly products, waste and general hazards of modern day living. Well, Combe Martin had another pollution battle against the River Umber which flows down the valley gathering natural pollutants from the hills, farmers’ fields and grasslands all ending up in our bay and floating out to sea. Now you may not realise that the salt in seawater is the seas natural defence against these natural pollutants and when the tide was out in the bay the contents of the River Umber diluted the seas natural defence and the pollutants won.
This made the residents sad, and they wanted to help the sea, but what could they do, fighting nature is a difficult thing, she’s a mighty force but when two natural things are duelling sometimes humans have to step in.
As any organised person will tell you, the best thing to do is form a group and this one was called Combe Martin Water Watch Group, a catchy name. They called a public meeting in the Village Hall and the response was overwhelming, with standing room only. Their hearts were filled with joy to realise that other residents were concerned too, and they knew then that they would have a formidable army.
That was the start of a whole avalanche of organisations rushing to help our sea. South West Water upgraded our sewage system and reconfigured their working practices. They gave out free smart water butts to residents that emptied themselves when rain was due so that they could collect more when it arrived…. How did this help you may ask… well the rain falls into our river, making the level rise and makes it flow faster, increasing the volume of pollutants arriving at the beach at the same time. By collecting some of that rain in smart water butts and letting it release gradually back into the rivers when no rain is due prevents this. Genius! Natural England got involved helping our farmers keep their cattle away from the sections of the river that flowed through their land. They also planted hundreds of trees to help reduce the speed of the fast-flowing water off the hillsides that surround our valleys. The children from Combe Martin School got involved by designing a sticker reminding people that only the 3 P’s (pee, poo and paper) should go in their loos. South West Water paid for 10,000 to be printed and they were distributed to B&B’s, self-catering units and public toilets to raise awareness to people who visited. After all they come here because it is so beautiful, they needed to know we were doing all we could to keep our sea healthy. North Devon Biosphere Reserve Partnership arranged for students from Exeter University to monitor our rivers, highlighting key problem areas so that they can be swiftly dealt with. Then came the wonderful volunteers who make up the Combe Martin Clean Beach group. With over 30 members they go out daily collecting all manner of rubbish, some you wouldn’t believe! And finally, our wonderful council members arranged for the seaweed to be collected, as this can be harmful in large quantities as well as providing a safe place for those nasty plastic bits we all hear about on the news. It does however make great compost and that’s what the council do with it.
Finally, after several years of hard work and effort the residents of Combe Martin got the news they had longed to hear. Combe Martin now has one of the cleanest beaches in the southwest peninsular. This made them very happy, and they patted each other on the back for coming together and helping our bit of the sea be happy again.
Now I know that not everyone believes in fairy tales with happy endings, so if you’re a facts and figures person here’s the link to the figures from the EA website https://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/profile.html?site=ukk4304-34700 clearly show the improvements made over the last four years.
Our efforts will continue, and we are very hopeful that our rating will become ‘excellent’ for 2024.
Philippa Shone Combe Martin Resident
Please note: Pollution Risk Forecasts tend to be triggered by rainfall raising the flow in our river temporarily. They do not necessarily imply that our seawater is polluted, just less salty at certain states of tide.