Chalkstream strategy welcomed

Conservationists have welcomed the launch of a new strategy to protect England’s chalkstreams, but have also called on the Government to take immediate action to save what Dr Janina Gray of Salmon & Trout Conservation (S&TC) calls “our coral reefs”.

Published by the Catchment Based Approach’s Chalk Stream Restoration Group, which brings together experts from the Environment Agency, Natural England, Ofwat, Angling Trust and the S&TC, among others, the document urges the Government to give chalkstreams “a status which reflects the fact that these rivers are not just locally precious, but globally unique”.

It was launched at a particularly fraught time, just days before MPS voted against an amendment to the Environment Bill that would have placed a legal obligation on water companies to reduce discharges of sewage into rivers.

Chalkstreams, says Gray, face two challenges: over-abstraction for public water supply; and pollution from agricultural inputs and a failing sewage system. “If we are serious about protecting chalkstreams, we need to remove the water companies’ reliance on ‘cheap’ aquifer water.”

This should go hand in hand with efforts to improve water quality that require “an effective regulator with the resources and mandate to enforce current regulations and hold polluters to account”.

Stuart Singleton-white at the Angling Trust welcomes the strategy, too, but adds that it is “meaningless if it does not lead to decisive, urgent action, by the Government, the Environment Agency and Ofwat, and the water companies. Promises tomorrow are one thing, it is action today that counts.”