A county MP said they are "proud" of action taken in Shrewsbury to reduce the number of water deaths.
Speaking during a debate on water safety education, Shrewsbury MP Julia Buckley told Parliament that the River Severn has been the scene of 14 deaths in the past 10 years.
00:00Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, and could I thank the member for Southampton-Itchen for securing this important debate?
00:08Now, Shrewsbury is famous for being looped by the beautiful River Severn, which is a source of beauty, nature and tourism and livelihoods for my town,
00:18but also, unfortunately, the source of 14 deaths in the last 10 years.
00:24And, overwhelmingly, these deaths occurred at the weekends, in the evenings, by men, sometimes after a night out, sometimes because of mental health, and sometimes those two factors combined.
00:39Fatally, in April 22, we had two river deaths in quick succession, Toby Jones and Nathan Fleetwood,
00:46and it brought the town together to say that we had had too many and that we needed to look at this as a community to see what could be done.
00:54Our local stakeholders and councils came together and launched a water safety campaign.
01:00They set up the new Water Safety Action Group, and it was funded by West Mercia Police.
01:05We set up safe-to-routes signage along the river.
01:09We got funding for increased solar lighting and rescue throw lines.
01:13We set up free online water safety courses for schools, colleges and clubs.
01:18We had a poster campaign in pubs and clubs.
01:21And the member for West Ham and Bechtam will be delighted to hear we created videos,
01:26which were broadcast in pubs and put out on social media, that told the story of what could go wrong.
01:32We also educated bar staff about not overselling alcohol when too much is too much.
01:38And we trained them in mental health response, working with our street pastors.
01:44We had free training from the RNLI on water-side response schemes, helping our local businesses.
01:50We got funding for CCTV, and we set up a scheme of Shrewsbury rangers and taxi marshals to help people late in the evening to get home safely.
01:59I'm really proud of my town, of how we took this on, and we said we don't want this to happen in Shrewsbury.
02:06And I'm proud to tell you the number of deaths has reduced slightly.
02:11And I want to pay tribute to our local stakeholders.
02:14They responded so quickly and so thoroughly to what we considered to be an emergency,
02:20and they've supported our local community.
02:22So can we thank Shropshire Council, Shrewsbury Town Council, our Business Improvement District,
02:29the funding and support from West Mercia Police, our street pastors, the fire and rescue service,
02:35and the Facebook group of our local residents, make our river safer.
02:40Because together, as communities, we can help to move the dial.
