A rower and a Taggs Island resident, backed by River Action, say Richmond Council failed to investigate their sewage nuisance complaint. They have sent a pre-action letter.

Two river users have started a legal challenge against Richmond Council. They say it failed to investigate their complaint that sewage in the Thames is a statutory nuisance.

The campaign group River Action, which is backing them, announced the challenge on 4 November. The claimants have sent the council a pre-action protocol letter. That is the formal step before a claim for judicial review, and it asks the council to reconsider.

The two are a rower with Mortlake Anglian and Alpha Boat Club and a Taggs Island resident who is a member of Taggs Island River Watch. No court has ruled on anything.

How it got here

River Action sets out the timeline in its announcement:

  • December 2025: the two complain to the council that sewage discharges into the Thames in the borough are a statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
  • 3 February 2026: the council replies. It accepts its duties under the Act, but says the statutory nuisance regime is “not generally the appropriate legal mechanism for addressing pollution of a river”. It says the effect on them when using the river “will not meet the statutory nuisance test”, and asks how they are affected at home.
  • February, April and July 2026: the claimants send more evidence and legal representations.
  • 28 August 2026: the council says the information is not enough to establish a statutory nuisance, or to require the extensive investigation asked for.
  • November 2026: the pre-action letter is sent.

The council’s words above are as River Action quotes them. The council has not published its own account.

What they say the council got wrong

The letter sets out five grounds. In River Action’s summary, the claimants argue that the council:

  1. failed to investigate the complaint
  2. or, if it did, failed to take enough steps to do so
  3. failed to take account of the further evidence
  4. rejected that evidence irrationally
  5. took a view of the statutory nuisance regime that is wrong in law

Under section 79 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, a council must take reasonably practicable steps to investigate a statutory nuisance complaint from someone living in its area. The claimants say the Environment Agency’s role in regulating water pollution does not remove that duty.

They are not asking for a set outcome, River Action says. They want a proper investigation and a lawful decision on whether a nuisance exists or is likely to recur.

The evidence they sent

River Action says the complaint included:

  • E. coli testing by Putney Town Rowing Club and Taggs Island River Watch
  • Environment Agency discharge data
  • details of Thames Water infrastructure linked to discharges
  • evidence of at least 52 hours of raw sewage discharge in Richmond Park during 2024

It says E. coli levels were above the Environment Agency’s threshold for inland bathing waters at the monitoring sites in 27 of the 35 weeks tested. The group has not published the full test results with its announcement.

One of 13 complaints

The Richmond complaint is one of 13 that residents sent to councils across the Thames catchment in December 2025, under River Action’s Make a Nuisance campaign. The complainants included Sir Steve Redgrave.

River Action says that almost a year on, no council has opened a formal statutory nuisance investigation into Thames Water’s discharges. It hopes a ruling in Richmond’s case would make councils’ duty clear nationally.

What happens next

The council can respond to the letter and reconsider, or defend its decision. If the claimants are not satisfied, they can apply to the High Court for permission to bring a judicial review. Richmond Council had not commented publicly on the challenge when we checked its news pages on 5 November.

What it means for you

  • If you swim, row or paddle on the Thames, the claimants’ own testing found E. coli above the bathing water threshold in most weeks tested, on River Action’s account.
  • If you want to make your own complaint, a statutory nuisance complaint goes to the council’s environmental health team.
  • We will report the council’s answer when it is published.

Sources