In his report to SHDC objecting to the Chillington development proposals, Leslie Pengelly notes that the Salcombe and Kingsbridge Estuary, which has gone from being progressively more polluted by raw solid sewage in the mid-sixties, as house building ballooned around the estuary towns and villages, to becoming much cleaner in the early seventies as the Sewage Treatment Works arrived.
The estuary basin, despite being an AONB, has seen an explosion housing since its AONB designation, The estuary, designated as a SSSI site in 1987 has now become ‘unpleasant waters’ in the summer, with the tide regularly turning a brick red /brown
The upper reaches of the Kingsbridge to Salcombe estuary are currently classed as polluted and there is evidence that sewage treatment works around the estuary are contributing to the problem. It is known that excess nutrients in the SSSI site provides a breeding ground for a red-tide dinoflagellate bloom that is now turning the once clear water red.
Here is Leslie’s letter and supporting evidence
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