Welsh Court to decide if regulators failed to keep Rive Wye pollution free
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00:00 Now!
00:01 What do we want?
00:02 Free the river!
00:03 When do we want it?
00:04 Now!
00:05 Hi, I'm Isabella Bonon, a reporter for National World, and I'm here outside Cardiff's Justice
00:11 Centre where a protest is taking place ahead of River Action's legal case against the Environment
00:16 Agency and DEFRA.
00:18 River Action claims that they both acted unlawfully in failing to adequately protect the river
00:23 wide.
00:24 The charity says that the river has rapidly declined and is on the brink of ecological
00:31 collapse.
00:32 A lot of protesters have gathered here today, including the likes of Fergal Sharkey, the
00:36 former singer of the 80s pop group The Undertones, and now a fierce sewage campaigner.
00:41 There are a lot of people on the street, and River Action are not going to take the Environment
00:46 Agency and DEFRA to court.
00:49 We believe there are a number of basic laws that exist to protect the rivers from the
00:54 effects of and the pollution caused by intensive agriculture.
00:58 The problem is those laws have simply never been enforced.
01:01 And a critical one says that it is an offence to spread manure and fertiliser over the soil
01:07 in a manner that the soil can't naturally absorb.
01:11 Now, what's happened to the river?
01:12 Well, it is one of the largest areas of intensive production in Europe.
01:16 It has been allowed, allowed I know, to be built in this tiny area of the country.
01:21 25% of the chicken flock of the country is being reared in the Wycatchment.
01:27 Now, the Wycatchment is a special area of conservation, it's a site of special scientific
01:32 interest, it's an area of absolute natural beauty, it is one of the most protected, environmentally
01:37 protected regions of the country.
01:39 Yet that river is almost dead.
01:41 And it was downgraded last year by Natural England to having the lowest possible environmental
01:47 status.
01:48 And that has produced all the mud from these chicken sheds, and it's spread over the land,
01:52 and it washes into the river, and the rivers die as a result.
01:56 One of the discussions that Charles and James and I had when setting up River Action was
02:02 that there was no existing way, and none of the existing environment charities were prepared
02:09 to really properly, in our opinion, hold government and regulators to account.
02:14 We have laws in this country, there are laws supposed to protect, conserve and conserve
02:20 the environment.
02:21 We think those laws are failing, we think they're not being applied properly, and that's
02:25 why we're in court today asking the court to now intervene and demand and order the
02:30 Environment Agency to go and do the job it was set up to do, and that's protect our rivers.
02:36 You can get angry, you can feel sad, but I mean I see it, you know, my local river is
02:42 the Avon in Bristol, you know, and I remember going down to swim in that one summer, and
02:46 I got there, and the smell, I just don't know what's true in that.
02:49 And it's just, you know, we need to look after our river a little better.
02:55 If River Action wins the case today, then it would be a landmark case, a people power
03:00 moment, and it would really give a black eye to the authorities and set a precedent for
03:06 the future.
03:07 Unfortunately, I don't, if the case wins, it's making people more aware of what's going
03:14 on, but unfortunately, unless governments start to really take a grasp of the situation,
03:21 and they do look for solutions and not leave it to the farmers, whose lobby they seem to
03:29 be frightened of, then nothing will happen.
03:32 We know what the Environment Agency is saying, as they say they're aware of this problem
03:37 now, and they've hired lots of inspectors, and they're getting out there in their visiting
03:41 farms, but you know, that's not shutting the gate after the horse has bolted.
03:45 It's great they're visiting farms, and we believe the majority of farms they visit,
03:50 they are registering non-compliance with environmental laws, and they're setting out actions and
03:56 enforcement notices and so on, but that's not enough.
03:59 It's not enough just to go and visit farms.
04:01 We want the law enforced.
04:03 Nobody in this country, whether farmers or motorists who want to speed going down the
04:09 DM4, you know, nobody should be above the law.
04:12 It's a simple, basic human right.
04:15 Nobody should be above the law.
04:16 [BLANK_AUDIO]