We are forever grateful to all our volunteers and supporters who have worked hard to make BedsGOVET a force of reckoning.
In 2025, we were able to monitor the River Great Ouse monthly at 18 sites from Turvey to Great Barford for key pollutants such as nitrates, phosphates, and E. coli using hyper-sensitive technology.
Our findings have enabled us to establish a strong link with the Environment Agency to support ongoing monitoring of the river.
2025 has also brought about a number of positives and developments for the Charity:
- A new relationship with the University of Birmingham (UioB). We are working with the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences to share in the management of detecting pollution sources and to test low-cost monitoring solutions.
- Discussions with Cranfield University are ongoing, and we hope to have MSc students assisting with testing on Brooks.
- Cementing our relationship with the Environment Agency, who have offered to assist us with the above activities and use our findings to help with their role to oversee the well-being of the river.
- A closer working relationship with:
- The Mayor and Bedfordshire Borough Council
- Other key Trusts such as Upper & Bedford Great Ouse Catchment Partnership (UBCOP), Great Ouse River Trust (GORT) and BCN Wildlife Trust.
- Local and Angling Clubs.
- The development of new branding and a website to make it easier to share our objectives, reach out to gain new volunteers and supporters and create a home for our educational materials.
We are in the throes of putting online a new analytical portal within our existing website that will provide access to our monthly test results and past results. - The ongoing sponsorship of Bedfordshire Independent, which provides space for a monthly column to promote our work and findings.
- The creation and development of educational resources that can be used by schools, homeschoolers and educationalists.
- Recruitment of new volunteers to aid in funding, communication, analysis and testing.
- Successful funding to keep our testing programme on track. Our key funders who helped with both equipment and testing costs for 2025 included:
- Wixamtree Charity
- DIL Motion
- National Highways
- Bedford Rural Fund
- Wells & Co (Charles Wells)
Key objectives for 2026
Our watchword for 2026 is ‘attack’. Having now put in place a great team of volunteers and supporters, and new partnerships our aim is to use our evidence to bring to light the key issues pertaining to the well-being of the River Great Ouse.
We are still to ratify our objectives, but here are some of our thoughts to date.
- Extend our monthly monitoring to include all relevant Water Framework Directive water bodies in north Bedfordshire, and ensure each water body has one or more allocated River Wardens and a baseline survey.
- Improve and/or extend our testing methods, equipment, and protocols to consistently meet evidential standards for relevant pollutants, providing sufficient evidence to ensure action can be taken as necessary.
- As well as develop systems to identify specific sources of pollution.
- Continue to improve our data recording, analysis, presentation and access to results for the greater community – in particular for key leisure users such as swimmers, anglers, paddle boarders and organisations who use the river for work.
- Deepen our relationships with like-minded partner organisations that can aid our cause:
- Bedford Borough Council (including wards/parish councils)
- The Environment Agency
- Catchment Based Approach (CaBA /UBOCP/CaSTCo)
- Rivers Trust (GORT)
- academia UioB, Cranfield/RRC)
- Surfers Against Sewage
- Angling Clubs
- Earthwatch (Bedford, Phoenix).
- Continue to provide updates about our work and results within the Beds Independent and on our website www.bedsgovet.org
- Develop further educational materials and resources to encourage future generations to know and care, and seek to work with educationalists within Bedford who have a natural interest in the River Great Ouse.
- Engage with Anglian Water proactively whilst maintaining our independence and objectivity.
- Continue to source adequate funding to enable our testing programmes and ongoing communication activities.
- Recruit and train a sufficient number of volunteers.
By Inga Wells. Executive MBA, PG Dip DMS.
The Bedford Independent is proud to support BedsGOVET in their
vital work to monitor water quality in the River Great Ouse
and provide them with space for a column as
part of their Don’t Lose the Ouse campaign.
