Councillor encourages swimming at 'dangerous' lake

A councillor has encouraged people to "take a few bevvies and cool off" at a reservoir where a man drowned in 2021 and where a council has warned it is dangerous to swim.

Robert Reiss, a Lib Dem councillor for East Ecclesfield in Sheffield, posted a video on social media on Wednesday urging the local authority to make the water at Crookes Valley Park clean enough to have "bathing status".

His video has been criticised for encouraging wild swimming while drinking alcohol, especially after multiple deaths at open water beauty spots over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Reiss and Sheffield City Council and have been contacted by the BBC for comment.

There was also a drowning at the lake in 2021, when a man in his 20s died while swimming at the spot, also known as the Old Great Dam.

The lake was originally a water supply reservoir and is extremely deep.

In 2010 a 53-year-old man died in the water at the park, though he was believed to have fallen in accidentally.

The video, which was posted on Wednesday, shows Reiss standing by the lake saying: "What happens if you live in a Sheffield terraced house that holds onto the heat on the warmest May day since records began?

"You come here to Crookes Valley Park like hundreds of others. Take a swim, have a few bevvies and cool off.

"But what we want to do is make sure Crookes Valley Park is given bathing water status to make sure those swimming in it are kept healthy and they can get rescued if they get into trouble.

"Because that's what the Sheffield Liberal Democrats stand for."

The clip has received almost 100 comments, including those calling it irresponsible, saying drinking and swimming is "the worst combination" and noting how deep and cold the reservoir is.

However others commended Reiss for advocating wild swimming and said that people should be "allowed to take risks" if they want to.

After the 2021 death during a July heatwave, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue subsequently warned against the dangers of swimming in canals, lakes and rivers unless with an organised swimming group, and the council also put up warning signs about the reservoir's depth.

On Monday three teenagers died in separate incidents in Yorkshire and Warwickshire as temperatures reached record highs.

In Halifax, West Yorkshire Police were called to Leadbeater Dam to reports a teenage boy had got into difficulty in the water. Reco Puttock, 13, was later confirmed to have died.

Later on Monday, emergency services were called to Kingsbury Water Park in Warwickshire shortly after 18:00 BST following concerns for the welfare of a girl in the water.

She was pronounced dead at the scene after her body was recovered, and a family member said the girl was 16 and could not swim.

Then in Rotherham, police recovered the body of a teenage boy from a lake in Rother Valley Country Park following a search and rescue operation.

Sheffield Liberal Democrats told the BBC that it wanted to reduce the risks associated with open water swimming with a focus on "stopping the discharge of sewage into rivers and other bathing areas".

A spokesperson said it was "essential" the risks were understood, including cold water shock, hypothermia, blue-green algae, strong currents and poor water quality and the risks were "much greater if a swimmer is intoxicated".

"While the council does not permit swimming at Crookes Valley Park we recognise that it is inevitably going to happen and we should welcome any initiative to make it safer", they added.

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