Campaigners’ call to take action on rivers

Campaigners are calling for the Government to take action to improve the quality of Staffordshire rivers.

The call was led by Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ West Midland conservation team manager, Frank Lucas.

He said: “The need for action was clearly demonstrated only last month when untreated sewage and cyanide made its way into parts of the River Trent.” The RSPB, World Wide Fund for Nature, the Angling Trust and the Association of Rivers Trusts have formed the Our Rivers national campaign.

It comes ahead of the publication of controversial plans for the UK’s waterways. Earlier this year a report revealed that three quarters of rivers in England and Wales are failing European targets on environmental quality.

But in the majority of cases the Environment Agency’s official plans – due to be published next month – fail to set out action to tackle the problems such as pollution from fertilisers and over abstraction, which threaten river wildlife.

The Trent, Tame and Severn are just some of the rivers that have been adopted by local river groups as part of the campaign.

All the adopted rivers appear on a map, which is being handed over to Environment minister Huw Irranca-Davis today in an attempt to persuade him to make last minute improvements to the plans.

Mr Lucas said: “What we need are strong plans that will help ensure that these vital ecosystems are safeguarded and restored back to health. But instead what we seem to be getting are plans that are visionless and lacking in ambition.”

Mark Owen, environmental campaigns manager from the Angling Trust said: “Urban run-off is one of the major issues that wrecks the sensitive flora and fauna of our rivers. We are frustrated that the Environment Agency hasn’t engaged enough with local councils to stop urban run-off.”

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