A conservationist has warned that Harrogate’s “creaking sewerage infrastructure” needs investment to cope with all the new homes.

Keith Wilkinson, who is chairman of Nidd Gorge Advisory Partnership and honorary secretary of Bilton Conservation Group, said more pollution was likely without improvements.

His comments come as investigations into last weekend’s pollution of Oak Beck are ongoing.

The Environment Agency, which previously said it was unable to comment during the Queen’s mourning period, gave a brief update today in which it said it had investigated “several” reports of dead fish and pollution and it was “identifying the source of what caused the fish deaths”.

Oak Beck, which rises at Haverah Park and empties into the River Nidd at Nidd Gorge, is classed as a main river by the Environment Agency even though it is narrow.

Oak Beck looking discoloured this week.

Mr Wilkinson said long-recognised problems with broken and wrongly connected Victorian pipes near The Hydro remained unresolved.

This, along with new housing developments in the area, would exacerbate the issue further, he said.

Mr Wilkinson said:

“North Harrogate’s sewerage system has been operating on optimum-to-overload capacity for at least a decade — before we see the aggravating grey water outputs of the excessive housing expansion on the A59 and Penny Pot Lane.

“In other words ‘we ain’t seen nothing yet’.”

Mr Wilkinson, who was awarded an MBE for services to conservation, also said he wasn’t aware of any plans to develop the northern outfall sewage works at Bilton to cope with the anticipated increase of sewage caused by new homes. He added:

“Their site has many spare acres of unused land — it occupies 56 acres in total — but I detect no suggestion that there will be significant investment in new infrastructure to increase its capacity to receive and process more inputs.”

Oak Beck fish deaths still a mystery

Contaminated water on Oak Beck stretched from The Hydro to Bilton this week. Mr Wilkinson said the watercourse would take three years to recover.

A Yorkshire Water spokesman said yesterday it was “still on site, trying to investigate possible sources” of the contamination. He added initial tests had shown the cause was not sewage.

Read more:

• ‘Hundreds’ of fish killed by pollution on Harrogate’s Oak Beck
• Oak Beck will take three years to recover from pollution, says Harrogate conservationist

Northern Gas Networks said the pollution is unconnected to work it is carrying out on the site earmarked for a new Tesco.

Mark Johnson, senior project manager at NGN, said:

“We’re currently undertaking work to safely dismantle the gas holder on Skipton Road and all of our discharge takes place into the main sewerage system, as is required.

“Following reports of a possible contamination at Oak Beck, we’ve been liaising closely with the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water, both of whom have confirmed that there is no connection with our work. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”