Councillors have backed a call for people to be banned from emptying boat toilets into the Great Ouse and its tributaries.

East Cambridgeshire District Council passed a motion this week (October 17) calling on the Environment Agency to take action over the issue.

Councillor Kathrin Holtzmann (Liberal Democrat) put forward the motion asking for support to try and help “make a difference locally”.

She said: “I think we can all agree that we shouldn’t have poo in our rivers, it is just not a good thing.

“Now we can’t fix our water companies, even though we probably all would like to, but we can make a difference locally.

“In many of the UK’s rivers it is already forbidden to empty your boat’s toilet right over the side, loo roll and all included.

“However, on the Great Ouse and its tributaries it is up to the Environment Agency to pass a bylaw that forbids that practice and requires people to go and moor in places such as Ely and then properly dispose of their waste at sanitary facilities.

“It is very unclear to me why the Environment Agency has not sorted that out yet, but I would like to propose that we write to them and request that they get a move on.”

Councillor Lorna Dupré (Liberal Democrat) said the river is one of the “jewels” of the area and said calling on the Environment Agency to ban people from emptying boat toilets in the river will make a difference locally.

Councillor Anna Bailey (Conservative), leader of the district council, said she would support the motion and that she was pleased to see it being put forward.

The council agreed to back the motion to ask the Environment Agency to take action to ban people from emptying boat toilets in the Great Ouse.