In a judgement that could have consequences for waterbodies across the country, the High Court last week found in favour of the Pickering Fishery Association and Fish Legal in their case against the environment secretary and Environment Agency (EA) regarding water quality action in the Upper Costa Beck.
Mrs Justice Lieven ruled that the Government and regulator had failed in their mandatory legal duties to review, update and put in place measures to restore the polluted trout and grayling river, under the Water Framework Directive.
Fish Legal, acting on behalf of the Pickering Fishery Association, brought a legal challenge to the government’s December 2022 River Basin Management Plan for the Humber district, as signed off by the secretary of state. They argued the plan lacked the legally required measures necessary to restore the Upper Costa Beck, such as a review and tightening of inadequate discharge permits and other authorisations to tackle the root causes of the fish failure, including recurrent sewage spills.
Mrs Justice Lieven characterised the secretary of state’s approach as one of “smoke and mirrors”, noting the acceptance before the court that there was no evidence that the programme of measures could reasonably be expected to achieve the Water Framework Directive’s environmental objective for restored status by December 2027.
Fish Legal solicitor, Andrew Kelton, said: “This case goes to the heart of why government has failed to make progress towards improving the health of rivers and lakes in England. Only 16% of waterbodies – 14% of rivers – are currently achieving ‘good ecological status’, with no improvement for at least a decade, which comes as no surprise to us having seen how the EA at first proposed, but then for some reason failed to follow through with the tough action needed against polluters in this case. The Upper Costa Beck is just one of 4,929 waterbodies, but it is a case study in regulatory inaction in the face of evidence of declining river health.”
He added: “The EA and the government have taken a high-level, generic – and effectively non-committal – approach to the mandatory targets when what was needed was a waterbody-by-waterbody plan of real, committed action. We hope this ruling will lead to widespread implementation of actual, on-the-ground improvements, not only on the Costa Beck but on every other ‘failing’ river and lake across the country.”
Matrix Chambers, which represented Pickering Fishing Association, said: “While the judicial review related to just one water body, the legal ruling is in principle applicable to the approach adopted by the EA to all waterbodies and therefore of potentially wide significance."
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