River health

The Comment in your May issue deals with the health of our rivers. More needs to be done and this will probably continue due to costs and the way we live now.

As a schoolboy, my daily walk to/from school in the 1940s was over the Colne at Milnsbridge, a few miles outside Huddersfield. Textile mills operated at full tilt in those days. Towards teatime, on the way home, the river was a different colour each day. This was due to the mills’ dyebaths being opened; surplus dyestuffs and their auxiliaries being vented. To where? To the River Colne, where else? It was normal.

I understand that fish were successfully reintroduced years ago so, at the same time as accepting there will always be more to be done, it would be churlish to avoid recognising such massive progress in pollution prevention for the benefit of all, including the fish.

Raymond Barry, Laytham, York