28 Feb 2024

How unhealthy are our rivers? The latest Rivers Trust State of Our Rivers Report finds that: No single stretch of river in England or Northern Ireland is in good overall health. Just 15% of English, 31% of Northern Irish, and 50% of Irish river stretches reach good ecological health standards. Toxic chemicals persist in every […]

28 Feb 2024

Last week, Alan Lovell, Chair of the Environment Agency delivered a speech at the 2024 NFU Conference. He talks about flooding, dredging, pollution, water resources, funding and more. Also covered by Sky News Environment watchdog chair tells farmers to ‘do better’ on river pollution Environment Agency chair Alan Lovell acknowledged the numerous “financial pressures” on […]

21 Feb 2024

Severn Trent has been fined more than £2m for polluting the River Trent near Stoke, with the Environment Agency calling its storm contingency plans “woefully inadequate”. Huge amounts of raw sewage were discharged into the river from Strongford wastewater treatment works near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, between November 2019 and February 2020. District judge Kevin Grego ruled […]

21 Feb 2024

The Environment Agency has launched a campaign to highlight the risks of growing high-risk crops, which can lead to pollution and flooding, in the South West of England Parts of Cornwall and north and east Devon are considered at risk due to underlying soil types, slope and proximity to sensitive watercourses, roads and properties. Inadequate […]

21 Feb 2024

The Welsh Parliament’s Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee has published a report making a series of recommendations to support improved performance at Welsh Water. Although there are mitigating factors including climate change challenges, the committee found the company to be “barely treading water when it comes to delivering for its customers and the environment. […]

07 Feb 2024

A toxic mix of oil, chemicals and bits of tyre from roads is polluting English waterways and no-one is regularly monitoring it, the BBC has found. Heavy rain forces run-off into streams and rivers. Campaigners say it causes “absolutely horrific” damage in places, including just downstream of where The Great British Bake Off is filmed. […]

07 Feb 2024

The London Assembly claims that instances of sewage flowing into London’s rivers in 2023 were almost five times the amount for the same period the previous year. The London Assembly used published Thames Water data which monitors discharge from 118 sites across the Thames Water network feeding into 33 rivers and waterways. The data shows […]

30 Jan 2024

The Times reports that Defra ministers have told water company bosses they will no longer “mark their own homework” on whether they are illegally polluting rivers, in a shift in how the sector is regulated. Private water companies have to run checks to ensure they are meeting permits issued by the Environment Agency about how […]