CUTE! (Debate)

Sun 20 Sep 2020, 16:20 (last edited on Sun 20 Sep 2020, 16:20)

"A good carp these days is hard to find..."

(Heavens I’m old for remembering that!)

Sat 19 Sep 2020, 09:32

Current news item - Feargal Sharkey, a lifelong fisherman, is taking action. He is planning a judicial review to challenge the Environment Agency and its management of our rivers. 

Thu 10 Sep 2020, 19:10

Some good news for once! Though I expect it will only be in a "limited and specific way"!!  Much as I'd love to say 'Following my letter to Robert Courts...' I've little doubt this is largely due to the efforts of groups like the ECP and WASP.  The devil of course will be in the detail.  More to follow on the possibility of CUTE! soon.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/09/defra-forms-taskforce-to-reduce-sewage-discharge-into-rivers-and-seas

Tue 25 Aug 2020, 19:06

Rod, keep it up!

Tue 25 Aug 2020, 14:40 (last edited on Tue 25 Aug 2020, 14:41)

Below is a summary of a longer letter |'ve just sent to Robert Courts following our meeting last week.  Happy to forward the rest to anyone interested but it's 6 pages long so won't be posting on here!  WASP are holding another session very soon and we'll see after that…

Long post - click to read full text

Thu 20 Aug 2020, 11:32

As Liz says, I was glad to be invited to the ECP (Evenlode Catchment Partnership - keep up!!) meeting with Robert Courts.  They I expect will be reporting somewhere about it so suffice to say I found it very useful and constructive.  As I've mentioned before, Mr Courts has already had some involvement here, at least re the Windrush, and appeared genuinely interested in the issues (though didn't know about the EA chief's position as in Mark's link below).

Mr Courts himself encouraged people to write to him.  If you are concerned about these issues, please do so.  There's no need to be a technical expert - I'm not - but the more of an issue it becomes in MPs' postbags the better, especially with the new Environment Bill coming back to Parliament soon.  I'll be writing to him more on that just as soon as I've researched it fully - but perhaps the most telling question at the meeting came from some young scouts: 'why isn't it always safe to go swimming in the river'?  Out of the mouths of babes.....

Wed 19 Aug 2020, 11:24

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/19/environment-agency-chief-backs-plan-to-water-down-river-cleanliness-rules-james-bevan

Tue 18 Aug 2020, 15:42 (last edited on Tue 18 Aug 2020, 17:15)

I gather that Rod is going to the meeting with the Evenlode Catchment Partnership to meet with Robert Courts tomorrow - look forward to hearing your feedback.

Wed 12 Aug 2020, 21:18

Barely a week goes by without yet another story on this topic - see here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/12/government-britains-rivers-uk-waterways-farming-water-companies

Monbiot is a well known campaigning writer, this article obviously so - doesn't mean it's wrong.  Sadly the WASP zoom session yesterday (see first post below) suffered intervention from unknown sources (mindless, not a conspiracy - as far as I know!) and has been postponed. 

I know there are more people following this thread than have been in touch.  Mid-August is not a great time to hold a meeting locally so I am not going ahead this weekend but will continue to update here as and when there's more to report.  Meanwhile, you know who to write to - this can only be solved by political means.

Fri 7 Aug 2020, 11:08

Thank you, Rod, for your hard work and keeping us informed on such an important issue. 

Thu 6 Aug 2020, 14:18

James Bevan should be ashamed to have his name placed against this release which in part is a flagrant attempt the manage the facts and potentially mislead legislators - and that is just with a passing glance over my lunch.

Wed 5 Aug 2020, 18:22 (last edited on Wed 5 Aug 2020, 18:23)

A quick update - see here  https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/in-praise-of-red-tape-getting-regulation-right  for the latest from the Environment Agency.  Cut through the waffle and about 2/3 of the way through you'll see their CEO supports a dilution (sorry!) of the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive in relation to what qualifies as 'good ecological status' for waterways.  Which of course will make life easier for the water companies and the EA. Notably, he says nothing about the present regulatory and monitoring regime.  I'm not a technical expert on this but however much it's dressed up as a 'more nuanced approach' you know and I know that's just gattocks (rhyming slang, almost!).

This government was elected on a mandate not to reduce the environmental standards inherited from our time in the EU.  You know who to write to.

Oh and also worth a look here -

and the End Sewage Pollution Coalition - for more news of what others are up to.

Mon 3 Aug 2020, 11:41 (last edited on Mon 3 Aug 2020, 11:44)

                                          Well that got your attention at least

                                        It stands for:  Clean Up The Evenlode!

                        To which we might add:  Don’t let it become The Overlode!

So this is a ‘follow on’ from the Evenlode thread on the main forum, as unavoidably it was becoming ‘political’, if with no-one defending the…

Long post - click to read full text