Teenagers taken ill after splashing about in the river

by Lisa Reeves

Wednesday 14^th September 2016

Wed 14^th Sep 2016

A group of teenagers were taken ill last week following an afternoon of fun by the river.

With it being a warm day, a dozen 14-year-olds decided to have a splash around close to the weir in the Wilmslow Park South area on Wednesday, 7th September, which is apparently a known spot where older kids often play.

Some of the children started to get poorly in the early hours of Friday morning, around 36 hours after being exposed and wilmslow.co.uk understands a number of children were subsequently sent home from school on Friday, 9th September.

The main symptoms they suffered from were diarrhoea, vomiting and back pain, in varying degrees of severity.

One parent said "My daughter has recovered sufficiently to be back in school today but is still not 100%. I believe this is the case for several others.

The Environment Agency has referred the case to Cheshire East Environmental Health Services.

A spokesperson for Cheshire East confirmed that they are "currently looking into this properly" as it is "something we are taking very seriously".

A parent commented "With another period of warm weather about to approach, it's a worry that other kids will go in the river and get sick, especially younger ones. Whilst it is widely known that playing in any river carries a risk of contaminated water, splashing around in The Bollin appears to be particularly risky at the moment.

"It is such a shame this has happened because kids are often berated for spending too much time on iPads, phones and screens, yet when they have a bit of old fashioned fun it has ended in the misery of being poorly."

Tags:: River Bollin

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Kate Ravenscroft

Wednesday 14^th September 2016 at 12:32 pm

Why anyone goes in there or allows their kids in there is beyond me! It's a free flowing river and not clean. It's primarily used by dogs for swimming! Stay out of it and keep your kids out of it.

DELETED ACCOUNT

Wednesday 14^th September 2016 at 12:58 pm

"With it being a warm day, a dozen 14-year-olds decided to have a splash around close to the weir in the Wilmslow Park South area on Wednesday, 7th September, which is apparently a known spot where older kids often play".

Have to say that it is not a spot where older kids often play. It is not a spot where any kids play - the reason being that most children would realise that the presence of the Bollin Longhorn, or their remaining cowpats, or the large number of dogs with their owners was, enough to tell them that this part of the River Bollin was not a place for splashing about in.

Nick Jones

Wednesday 14^th September 2016 at 2:44 pm

Good job there are no Waste Water Treatment plants along the Bollin to discharge effluents … Oh there is !!
Good job they’ve never been told to watch the quality of the product they pump out into the river then…. Oh they have !!

If the Youngsters are suffering the Pets certainly will be also…

Water covers 2/3rds of the Earths surface, but FRESH WATER is 0.002 %

Best wait for the new water sports centre to open !!

Terry Roeves

Wednesday 14^th September 2016 at 4:46 pm

And Nick, we should not forget agrochemicals and garden chemicals from new housing along the Bollin watershed. Fish stocks are down and little sign of migratory game fish, enabled with the new ladder at Quarry Bank Mill.
It can only get worse.

Stuart Redgard

Wednesday 14^th September 2016 at 6:09 pm

Good to know that Cheshire East Council are "currently looking into this properly" as it is "something we are taking very seriously".

Am I being cynical or does this suggest that "they don't look into things properly" when "it is something that they don't take very seriously"?

Just a thought!

Carole Bennett

Wednesday 14^th September 2016 at 10:46 pm

..come on people it's always been like that , as children we were always throwing up after a swim...either that or we were avoiding water rats or burning off leeches...

Anne Greenhalgh

Thursday 15^th September 2016 at 12:59 am

I spent my childhood in & around Wilmslow & spent many happy hours down the Carrs with our little plastic flasks filled with squash & jam or paste butties, I learned to swim at Red Rock & it was idyllic. None of us was ever sick as far as I can remember but we weren't pumped full of Antibiotics for every little sniff & I didn't expose my children to them unless it was absolutely necessary. The fish & the Kingfishers had returned by the time I had grown up so unless something else is happening which obviously needs investigating I suggest checking as to whether these kids had too many prescriptions. You have to eat a peck of dirt to gain resistance, it makes perfect sense in this sterile world.

Jon Williams

Thursday 15^th September 2016 at 3:30 pm

The National Farmers Union claimed human waste was regularly spread on fields used to grow crops, but there are strict guidelines to prevent horrendous smells, and to prevent excrement being used to produce our food, so you never know !

Oliver Romain

Friday 16^th September 2016 at 1:28 am

I was looking at the bollin downstream from here a few days ago and noticed dozens and dozens of brown trout under the footbridge in the carrs. Its generally clean but I think water plants are allowed to discharge untreated effluent at times of high rainfall.

Ben Gill

Monday 3^rd October 2016 at 9:04 pm

To anyone that disagrees that kids play here by the waterfall...they do. I'm 15. The same happened to me back in July with all of these symptoms; I also had severe stomach pain all day up until around 5pm (day after I went in) until I was finally sick, about twice an hour, up until about 2am. I still had a temperature and other flu related symptoms up until about 2 days after.