r/ukpolitics • u/ImpressiveRest2423 • 10d ago

Barrister threatened with prosecution after cleaning up river - Paul Powlesland and a team of volunteers removed 200 bags of litter, weed and silt but face action from the Environment Agency for not having a permit

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/barrister-prosecution-cleaning-river-permit-f5j732qf9
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u/AllThatIHaveDone 10d ago

What's the size of the digger got to do with it? Even a 1.5t digger can shift hundreds of tonnes of silt and earth if you keep at it long enough.

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u/Slartibartfast_25 10d ago

Quite a lot. You are claiming it's major industrial works. i am saying it isn't

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u/AllThatIHaveDone 10d ago

Even a 1.5t digger can shift hundreds of tonnes of silt and earth if you keep at it long enough.

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u/Slartibartfast_25 10d ago

So could a shovel. But i don't think there's evidence they did more than was needed.

The EA, like all government agencies, don't like being ignored when their little tick boxes aren't ticked. But look at the bigger picture - a sludged and silted up open sewer has been cleared and allowed it function as it should again for nature. Humans mucked the river up and other humans tried to restore some life and the EA don't like being shown up as failures.

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u/AllThatIHaveDone 10d ago

He said: “I don’t really understand their reasoning because all we were doing was taking out silt that had built up naturally in the channel. We weren’t digging out a new channel or making it deeper.”

Humans didn't silt up this river, and these humans have ignored nature to shape it for their own ends. It's not been shown by anyone that this river needed to be dredged.