A FREE wild swim event in a Taunton park has been cancelled due to poor water quality.

The supervised session planned in French Weir Park tomorrow (Saturday, September 23) was called off by organisers following the recent stormy weather.

Janine East, chairman of Friends of French Weir Park, which is organising Saturday swims throughout September, said: "We have checked the river today (Friday) and unfortunately after all the bad weather we have had, and especially the heavy rain, due to a combination of fast flow, debris which has washed down from upstream, very cold temperature and water quality with run off due to rising water levels, we have had to cancel the safe swimming September session tomorrow as it just isn’t safe to swim at the moment, and won’t have cleared up enough by tomorrow.

READ MORE: Wild swimming events in Taunton park.

"We really hope it will be possible for the session on Saturday, September 30 to go ahead, but obviously cannot run if it’s not safe, so we will keep monitoring the river over the next few days - please watch this space for further updates and in the meantime, please be sensible and don’t swim unless you are confident it is safe to do so."