This morning there was a piece on the Today programme on Radio 4 about a legal case that has just reached the High Court. There's also an article on the BBC news website.
Leigh Day are suing Avara Foods, who have intensive chicken rearing sheds in the Wye catchment area, and Welsh Water, who have failed to keep the pollution from chicken manure out of the river and have also been releasing sewage into the river themselves. About 24 million chickens are reared in the catchment area, a quarter of all the chickens in the UK.
This is supposed to be the biggest environmental pollution case ever brought in British courts, as over 4,500 people who live and work along the river have signed up to be part of the action.
Evidence of the river's declining water quality has been collected over several years by citizen scientists testing the water, and Natural England rated the condition of the river as "unfavourable - declining" in 2023. There was also a big local campaign to make the Warren into an official bathing area, so that the water had to be officially tested, but it seems to have made very little difference to the pollution.
Supporters of the action turned up at Court this morning with the giant puppet Goddess of the Wye.
Here's the picture from Paul Powlesland's blog (he's a London campaigner for clean rivers and a barrister).
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