The UK environment secretary, Steve Reed, is pursuing legal action against a group of anglers who are trying to restore the ecosystem of a river.
Lawyers for Reed will argue on Tuesday in the court of appeal that cleaning up individual rivers and streams devastated by pollution is administratively unworkable.
The appeal was begun by the previous Conservative administration, after Pickering Fishery Association, a fishing club in North Yorkshire, won a landmark legal case against the government and the Environment Agency.
The anglers successfully argued that the government and the Environment Agency had failed in their legal duties to protect the Costa Beck, a former trout stream near Pickering which has been devastated by sewage pollution and runoff from fish farms.
The judgment ruled that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency had devised plans for the Costa Beck that were so vague and lacking in commitment to real, on-the-ground action they would inevitably be ineffectual. It followed more than a decade of action by Pickering Fishery Association over the failure of the agency to restore the health of the river.
Reed’s decision to continue the legal action flew in the face of Labour’s stated commitment to clean up rivers, according to Penny Gane, of NGO Fish Legal.
“This new government came into power promising that cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas was a top priority,” said Gane. “The fact that it is fighting our angler members in court to avoid doing the hard work necessary to bring about any improvements in the health of Britain’s rivers flies in the face of that commitment.
“This case and its results will expose the true colours of this new administration and help show whether their promises are backed by any real intention to change the status quo. We see no evidence so far that they want to properly regulate industries that chronically pollute our waterways.”
The government will argue that it is administratively unworkable to come up with specific measures to clean up individual rivers, lakes and streams as is required by law under the Water Framework Directive.
Only 15% of rivers in England are judged as having good or above ecological health status, such is the state of pollution, from sewage, agricultural and industrial runoff.
Under the water framework directive, the EU-derived regulations designed to drive a clean-up of rivers, which is part of British law, all waterbodies should achieve good ecological status or potential for good ecological status by 2027.
Martin Smith, of Pickering Fishery Association, said: “When the high court ordered the Environment Agency to go back to the drawing board on its plans to improve the Costa Beck, we thought it would be a turning point.
“Our angling club – who has been fighting for years to bring back fish to the Costa Beck – finds it ridiculous that the body who is responsible for protecting the river needs to be dragged kicking and screaming through the courts to force it to take even the most basic regulatory action.”
A Defra spokesperson said: “We are unable to comment on ongoing legal matters.”
Source: theguardian.com
