Buckinghamshire Council publishes hard-hitting report on pollution of the County’s rivers and chalk streams
On Tuesday 15th November 2022, Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet accepted all the recommendations of a report on pollution in the County’s rivers by its Transport, Environment and Climate Change (TECC) Select Committee.
Calling for urgent action to protect the County’s rivers and chalk streams, the report’s key conclusions include that the water industry is the single biggest contributor towards poor water quality in the region. The report also found that five of Buckinghamshire’s rare chalk streams are being polluted with effluent from sewage treatment work among other pollutants.
Buckinghamshire Council has therefore this week pledged to lobby water companies and the Environment Agency to do more to tackle polluted watercourses across the county. In particular, the Leader of the Council will write to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs over its concerns over the Environment Agency’s lack of engagement, the discharge of its statutory functions and its conduct. The Council will also ask Anglian Water and Thames Water to submit annual reports on progress in reducing pollution into the County’s rivers and chalk streams.