'It's filthy': Feargal Sharkey and LBC find South Yorkshire's iconic River Don fails series of environmental tests

This week, Feargal Sharkey, the former Undertones frontman and influential environmental campaigner, travelled to Swinton in South Yorkshire to test the River Don, a 70-mile stretch of water running through cities such as Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster, which became a pillar for transporting goods such as steel during the Industrial Revolution.

There, he tested for a litany of bugs and pollutants, once again placing the Environment Agency and the regional water company, Yorkshire Water, under the microscope.

And the findings make for truly grim reading.

The most concerning result Mr Sharkey uncovered was when testing for phosphates in the river.

If a river contains elevated levels of phosphates, it can result in the development of blue-green algae, a highly toxic constellation of microscopic organisms, which can cause illness in humans and be fatal for wildlife.