THE Leader of Forest of Dean District Council, Cllr Adrian Birch has written to The Rt Hon Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, inviting him to the Forest to address the council on his plans to deal with the decline of the districts waterways. 

Leader of the Council, Cllr Adrian Birch said:“The Rivers and Ocean Motion was brought before full council by Cllr Andrew McDermid and received fantastic and unanimous support from all attending councillors. 

“The rivers that bound our district, the Severn and the Wye, have both suffered from overwhelming amounts of pollution, resulting in the numbers of native species of eels and salmon declining at an alarming rate.  

“Here at the council, we want to do everything we can to help stop this catastrophic problem from getting even worse. Working together with councillors from across the political spectrum we want to tackle the issues we see with our waterways and lobby for improvements so that they can be enjoyed for generations to come.” 

Following the motion receiving support at full council in May, the authority has formed a ‘Water Improvement Group’, with councillors from across the political spectrum committed to tackle the scourge of waterway pollution, generate ideas and drive actions to clean local rivers.  

The Water Improvement Group will now work with citizen and voluntary groups and with other local authorities, together exerting concerted pressure on government. The group will also seek to identify and measure pollution sources, monitor and publish the data, and to involve the public, especially our young people, in caring for our waterways. 

Cllr Adrian Birch added:“Our waterways are polluted by agricultural fertilisers and pesticides, untreated human sewage and the surface water run-off from roads. They also suffer from the effects of chemicals from domestic and industrial sources, micro plastics and pharmaceuticals.  

“A problem of this scale cannot be tackled alone and that is why I’m so proud that all councillors voted unanimously in favour of this motion and to work together to help clean up our waterways. We want everyone to be able to enjoy our rivers long into the future and we hope that by working together and lobbying government we can make that a reality.” 

Residents who are interested in finding out how they can assist with the work being done to protect the River Wye can visit the Friends of the Wye group website at friendsoftheriverwye.org.uk