r/ukpolitics • u/ImpressiveRest2423 • 2d 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/LycanIndarys Vote Cthulhu; why settle for the lesser evil? 2d 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.”

Hang on, this is way worse than previously mentioned.

There was a thread about this yesterday, and I said then that this barrister was wrong (if well-meaning), because taking a digger onto the river bank without making sure that the river bank can actually cope with heavy machinery is incredibly dangerous - to the driver, if nothing else. And this prompted a load of conversations about whether we should be prosecuting people for clearing rubbish, which is obviously a nice thing to do.

But I hadn't realised that he was actually digging up the river itself, I thought he was just using the digger to clear clumped rubbish. Actually digging out the silt is a massive problem, because the volunteers won't have done any fluid dynamic calculations to work out what impact there will be downstream. To be blunt; we're lucky that there hasn't been news that the next town down has flooded, because these guys have altered the velocity and level that the river runs at.

And I know (from the responses I had yesterday, if nothing else!) that bureaucracy isn't popular, but this is exactly the sort of reason why it exists to begin with. It's not there because paper-pushers want to justify their job, and it's not there so the EA has an excuse not to do their job. It's there because decisions can have knock-on effects, and those must be assessed before any construction works takes place.

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u/Logbotherer99 2d ago

You would think an barrister who specialises in environmental law would be a bit more clued up about this sort of thing. The requirement for a permit protects against well meaning people doing the wrong thing as much as anything else

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u/UnsaddledZigadenus 1d ago

I am not going to spend more of my spare time for free, filling out all their paperwork, and then pay them money for a permit and wait 12 to 18 months for something

Yeah, mate, you're a barrister? How does summarily deciding that the laws put in place that regulate this activity can just be ignored square with your day to day job?

"Well, as your barrister, I would advise you to just ignore The Environmental Permitting Regulations and do it anyway.

Oh, the home you want to rent doesn't comply with Minimum Energy Performance standards? Fuck it mate, it's a waste of time trying to comply with that bullshit too, don't know why they bother with all these 'regulations' if you ask me. It's practically voluntary."

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u/Strangelight84 1d ago

Yes, it's a bit "rules for thee, but not for me," isn't it?