The Crown's James Murray joins river pollution protest

Actor James Murray, best known for his role as Prince Andrew in the Netflix series 'The Crown', took to the streets of Newbury on Sunday, April 14, to join protestors fighting to keep Wiltshire's rivers clean.

In 2023, 23,740 hours of untreated sewage poured into the River Kennet, a tributary of the River Thames which runs through Marlborough, Hungerford and Newbury.

Thames Water has been repeatedly slammed by the Action for the River Kennet group (ARK) after plans for sewage treatment work improvements have been pushed back, and now protesters have made it clear that enough is enough.

Protestors came out in force to call out Thames Water's inaction over sewage leaks. (Image: ARK)

"It was a fantastic show of support in Newbury today for the Kennet Catchment River Keepers End Sewage Pollution Protest, supported by us and Angling Trust," said a spokesperson for ARK.

"We spoke about the untreated sewage that poured into the Kennet rivers, the decades of under-investment from Thames Water, plans for sewage treatment works improvements now being pushed back and the deeply concerning water quality results and manholes pouring down our streets and into our chalk streams."

Actor James Murray, who opened the protest, has attended several other protests calling for cleaner rivers, and has condemned Southern Water for raw sewage pumped into the River Test in Hampshire, as well as Thames Water for its inaction in Wiltshire.

The Crown actor James Murray protested alongside ARK's Anna Forbes (Image: ARK)

In response to the recent criticism, a spokesperson for Thames Water said: “We regard all discharges as unacceptable and we have published plans to upgrade over 250 of our sewage treatment works, including at these affected sites.   

“We recently completed a £5 million upgrade to Hungerford sewage works and we’re completing a £2 million upgrade at Kintbury. We also have plans to upgrade our Ramsbury and Marlborough sewage treatment sites.

“The overflows are designed to operate automatically when the sewer network is about to be overwhelmed by heavy rainfall, by releasing diluted wastewater into rivers, rather than letting it back up into people’s homes. 

The River Kennet in Marlborough has been a hotspot for raw sewage leaks this year. (Image: ARK)

“Taking action to improve the health of rivers is a key focus for us and we are leading the way with our transparent approach to data. We remain the only water company to provide live alerts for discharges to our customers and environmental groups.”

But speaking at the protest on April 14, David Kinnaird, a Lib Dem candidate for East Wiltshire, added: "I’ll continue to write to Chris Weston at Thames Water but meaningful action is unlikely until they are forced to.

"It’s a shaming failure of regulation and of privatisation itself."