REPORT ON DELIVERY OF LETTER TO ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, JULY 23rd

On Thursday 23rd July, 2pm,  seven of us gathered at short notice to deliver  of people who care about our rivers to deliver a letter to the Chair of the Environment Agency (EA) at their  Legal Services HQ in Deanery Road, Bristol BS1 5AH.

The letter starts with a summary of the case of Paul Powlesland, who is a River Guardian, an activist for and defender of,  the River Roding, a tributary of the Thames. He has found several illegal sewer outlets, told the EA about them, and they said they had no money to prosecute. He also found a tributary of the Roding totally blocked. Again the EA said they could not do it, lack of funding, so Paul hired a digger to do it. The EA threatened to prosecute him for clearing the tributary without a permit. Then, following an outcry, they withdrew their threat. 

The letter summarises the failure of EA to prosecute serious corporate polluters but its willingness to prosecute River Guardians who remove litter and blockages - a clear failure of natural justice, and a sign that the EA has become unfit for purpose in its current condition. See below for the full text.

Having delivered the letter by hand to the EA reception, we went for a nice cup of tea to discuss next moves. We decided to create a much bigger repeat some time in mid—October. We will choose a day that doesn’t clash with other demonstrations (this one clashed with a protest in Bristol against Elbit, who supply parts to Netanyahu’s war machine). The purpose of the demonstration will be to discuss the response of the EA to the letter - or the lack of response!

Watch this space for news of the demonstration, and keep an eye on Bristol 247 https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/ who may do a report on the event.

______________

23 July 2026

Alan Lovell

Chair, Environment Agency

c/o Environment Agency Legal Services

Horizon House

Deanery Road 

Bristol 

BS1 5AH

Dear Mr Lovell

An increasing number of taxpayers are concerned at the polluted state of the rivers in England, and our concern has been brought to a head by the case of Paul Powlesland, a barrister specialising in Environmental Law and a guardian of the River Roding, a tributary of the Thames. He found several illegal sewer outlets, told the EA about them, and the response was that the EA had not sufficient money to prosecute. He also found a tributary of the Roding that was totally blocked. Again the EA said they could not unblock the waterway, citing lack of funding, so Paul hired a to clear it successfully. The EA threatened that they would prosecute him for clearing a waterway without a permit. Then, following a public outcry, the threat was withdrawn. 

The failure of EA to prosecute serious corporate polluters but its willingness to prosecute River Guardians who remove litter and restore flows is a clear failure of natural justice. 

We, concerned members of the public, feel that this case indicates the need for a root and branch reassessment and review of the Environment Agency’s operation, looking at its effectiveness, its priorities, its relationship with corporate polluters, its corporate ethos, and in particular, the morale and opinions of its employees, whose professionalism is often, we feel, constrained by EA policy. 

We feel that the EA should enforce the law on environmental crimes, particularly regarding sewage & waste dumping.

We feel that the EA must have a positive duty to restore England’s rivers to a good state of health

We feel that the EA should start working with local river guardians to make both of these things happen.

Thank you for giving this matter your serious attention. 

We look forward to your timely and considered response.

Yours sincerely

Richard Lawson  (plus six co-signatories)