Government needs to clean up its act over River Wandle (From Sutton Guardian)

Government needs to clean up its act over River Wandle

7:20am Saturday 28th November 2009

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Urgent action is needed to improve the ecology of the River Wandle, environmental campaigners warned last week.

Members of the Wandle Trust and national river action campaigners met with the Government minister for marine and natural environment in Westminster to lobby for action that will improve the quality of all Britain’s rivers.

In the Wandle’s case, members of the trust said despite recent improvements, the river is still likely to fail in reaching a European Union benchmark stipulating that all rivers are of a “good”

ecological status by 2015.

Dr Bella Davies, development officer for the Wandle Trust, said: “The River Wandle has some unique issues which affect its quality and we want to be sure that they will be included in the government’s new plans.

“For the Environment Agency to address these issues they have to know what the problems are at a local scale, so they need local information about each river. “ The Trust has joined the Our Rivers Campaign to call on the Government to use local knowledge and information in producing an action plan for the country’s rivers, due to be published next month.

Dr Davies said Merton, Croydon, Sutton, and Wandsworth residents should stand up for the Wandle by lobbying their MP or writing to Hilary Benn, the secretary of state for the environment, to ensure the Wandle is properly represented in the plan.

To find out more, log on to ourrivers.org.uk or wandletrust.org.

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