A water company has responded after a woman claimed seeing ‘human faeces’ in the river at a well-known East Lancashire beauty spot.

Claire Rigby was on a visit to Slaidburn last Tuesday (July 30) and had been enjoying her time there until seeing what she thought was faeces in the River Hodder.

Claire, who used to live in Gisburn but now lives in Coniston Cold, North Yorkshire, said she was disappointed and had had a much better experience when visiting Burnsall earlier last month.

She said: “I was stood looking at the river, there were kids in the river, dogs in the river, and I thought I’d go down and have a little look.

“All I could see was human faeces bobbing all the way down the river and I just thought I can't believe this. There’s children playing in there, there’s dogs in there. We got in the car and I said I can't believe what I've just seen.”

When asked for to comment on the situation, United Utilities said there had been no discharges from storm overflows in the area.

They added an engineer did attend the site and saw evidence of algae and some naturally occurring foam on the river which can sometimes be mistaken for wastewater.

A United Utilities spokesperson said: “There has been no discharges from our storm overflows in the area.  Our teams did inspect the river and found evidence of algae and some naturally occurring foam – both of which sometimes get mistaken for wastewater.”

In a response sent to Claire, the Environment Agency said the information can help build an understanding of local environmental risks, and their officers are better able to target our regulatory activities.

They added: “In line with our national risk-based protocols, we determined that the environmental impact from the reported incident was minor, and no further investigation was carried out at that time.

“This assessment was made after considering the information given to us. The decision was supported by confirmation of no other reported issues in the area and noting that we received only your report.”