Authorized motion confirmed for appalling River Lugg injury

The Angling Belief and Fish Authorized welcome the choice by Pure England and the Setting Company to launch authorized motion towards a landowner for injury to a protected space of the River Lugg in Herefordshire. The landowner carried out unauthorised work alongside a 1.5km part of the River Lugg in December 2020. The fees introduced towards the landowner additionally relate to additional alleged damaging work finished in December 2021.

Stuart Singleton-White, Head of Campaigns on the Angling Belief, mentioned, “We’ve needed to watch for over two years for the Setting Company and Pure England to take this determination to prosecute the landowner. This will’t come quickly sufficient. The injury finished was devastating to among the most vital wildlife habitats we have now, together with spawning grounds for salmon and different fish.

We hope each the EA and NE shall be calling for the strongest doable sentence if a profitable prosecution is secured. Landowners need to know they can not merely destroy our rivers with impunity.

Nevertheless, that is solely huge information as a result of it’s a protected web site, and since so little prosecution and enforcement motion takes place. Our rivers endure abuse and injury each day. We all know the EA doesn’t reply to nearly all of incidents reported to it, and of these it does reply to, prosecutes even much less. We name on the EA to do extra to prosecute these abusers of our rivers, not solely at protected websites however wherever such wonton vandalism takes place.”

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The announcement of from Pure England and the Setting Company comes on the day the Angling Belief printed its report, ‘Riparian Habitat Destruction’ highlighting a sequence of examples, together with the River Lugg, of unacceptable and pointless habitat destruction alongside the banks of no fewer than 9 English rivers. That is in direct contravention of each the Company’s personal steerage and nationwide authorities coverage on the atmosphere.

Justin Neal, Solicitor at Fish Authorized, mentioned, “We’ve plenty of instances of environmental vandalism on our books the place farmers and different landowners have canalised and dug out riverbeds and banks beneath the misapprehension that this could enhance drainage and keep away from flooding of fields or enhance entry for equipment and autos.

There are additionally instances the place landowners have dumped garbage subsequent to rivers in massive portions which has prevented entry and triggered environmental injury. In practically all of those instances, there may be proof that the EA has both ignored stories or underreported the importance of the environmental hurt triggered to the river. In a few of these, the EA has put it all the way down to a neighbour dispute. The issue with that’s that it leaves weak golf equipment and riparians to need to struggle the destruction themselves.

We’re due to this fact happy to see that on this case on the Lugg, the EA is urgent forwards with a prosecution beneath the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act. Let’s hope that the EA and NE safe a prosecution with a giant effective for this appalling act of vandalism.”

Should you care about defending our rivers, please JOIN the Angling Belief & Fish Authorized and help our work to guard our fragile water atmosphere.