🚨 STOP BIG CHICKEN CHOKING OUR RIVERS Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy has landed on @NetflixUK , exposing the hidden costs of our obsession with cheap chicken. Here in the UK, our rivers are already paying the price. Every year, more than 1 BILLION chickens are reared in the UK, producing 3.5 million tonnes of manure. In many areas, there's already more waste than the land can safely absorb. When rain washes this pollution into rivers, it fuels toxic algal blooms, kills wildlife and damages precious habitats. ✍️ TAKE ACTION. Tell the Government to ditch its Poultry Growth Plan and support farming that protects our rivers instead of polluting them. SIGN THE PETITION: bit.ly/4w9IRGm

Thames Water thrown another lifeline. 🚨 Thames Water’s creditors have offered another £2.4 billion in emergency loans and a plan to push its debts back a year. It’s not a rescue. It’s not a fix. It’s another year on life support, and another year of sewage in our rivers. Their price? Thames Water gets let off penalties for missing environmental targets until 2030, and then they cash out. We can’t keep repeating the same mistakes and expect a different result. The government doesn’t have to wait for the money to run out. It can put Thames Water into special administration now, for failing our rivers. Tell the Prime Minister to place Thames Water into special administration today 👉 riveractionuk.com/email-andy…

CAN COUNCILS PASS THE BUCK ON SEWAGE POLLUTION? 💩 Local rowers and residents have raised serious concerns about sewage pollution in the River Thames, backed by water quality testing and pollution evidence. But getting their concerns properly investigated has been far from straightforward. Now, River Action is backing a legal challenge launched by local residents calling on Richmond Council to fulfil its legal duties and properly investigate these complaints. Through our Make A Nuisance campaign, we're helping communities use existing environmental law to demand answers and accountability. ⚖️🩵 Our argument is simple: Councils have a legal duty to investigate statutory nuisance complaints. They cannot simply pass responsibility elsewhere.

Should any industry be allowed to write its own growth plan? Why is government empowering the poultry industry to plot an expansion of intensive poultry units across the UK? This seems like a case of state capture by Big Chicken. @StephenMorganMP

27 out of 35 weeks. 🦠 That’s how often two local river users found E. coli above bathing-water levels in the Thames, and now they’re legally challenging Richmond Council for failing to investigate. 📺 As seen on BBC London. Scum on the surface. Foul smells. Rowers reporting they’ve fallen ill. And still no formal investigation. The Council says it shares people’s concerns and will respond by 10 November. We’ll be watching. 👀 This is one of 13 Make a Nuisance complaints lodged with councils along the Thames last December. Almost a year on, not one has opened a formal investigation. ⏳

Taggs Island resident Suzanne Cave went on BBC News London to explain why she and rower Eleanor Warren are taking Richmond Council to court over sewage in the Thames. Repeated high E. coli readings. Complaints of sewage-related nuisance. And, they argue, a Council that has failed in its legal duty to properly investigate. Suzanne and Eleanor aren’t asking the Council to reach a set conclusion. They’re asking it to do its job: look properly at the evidence and decide, lawfully, whether a statutory nuisance exists. That shouldn’t be too much to ask. Suzanne and Eleanor, thank you for standing up for our rivers. We’re right behind you. 🫶

What would public ownership of water companies actually mean? The Government’s pledge to remove historic restrictions on public ownership is welcome. But changing the rules is only the beginning. In our latest blog, we explore what the proposed repeal means, why Special Administration matters and what needs to happen next. 👉riveractionuk.com/news/publi…

Water companies are failing our rivers, & Yorkshire Water is among them. “Lessons will be learned”With bills rising and rivers suffering, I challenge your CEO to join me in a Yorkshire river of my choice & witness the reality first-hand. Enough promises. Time for action R Wharfe

Water companies are failing our rivers, & @YorkshireWater is among them. “Lessons will be learned”With bills rising and rivers suffering, I challenge your CEO to join me in a Yorkshire river of my choice & witness the reality first-hand. Enough promises. Time for action R Wharfe

🚨 WATER COMPANY PERFORMANCE: WORST YEAR ON RECORD England’s water companies are failing our rivers - and today’s Environment Agency report lays bare the scale of the crisis. 📉 Four companies have received the lowest possible performance rating. Yorkshire Water, Southern Water and South West Water have joined Thames Water at just 1 star out of 4. All but one company received just 1 or 2 stars. 💩 74 serious pollution incidents. That’s no real improvement from 2024. Thames Water was responsible for more than a third of these incidents, and four companies - Thames, Yorkshire, Southern and Anglian Water - accounted for 82% of all Category 1 and 2 incidents. ⚠️ 2,666 pollution incidents in total, with almost no improvement on the year before. ⚠️Category 1 & 2 incidents have increased by 30% since 2016, from 57 to 74. These figures are yet another damning indictment of England’s privatised water industry. Our rivers are paying the price while weak enforcement allows polluters to escape meaningful accountability. Our rivers can’t afford another year of failure. We need effective enforcement, polluters held accountable, and urgent action to stop pollution at source. riveractionuk.com/news/water…

Here is a short clip showcasing some Just of our underwater filming, which was presented on Saturday, 24 October, at the Warwickshire Avon River Health Forum, held at Stratford-upon-Avon Boat Club. #BeneathBritishWaters #BeneathTheOars #RiverConservation #FreshwaterLife

🚨 ENGLAND'S RESERVOIRS COULD RUN DRY BEFORE CHRISTMAS. A major investigation by @thetimes has uncovered secret Government warnings of a potential 'Day Zero' water crisis, with some reservoirs at risk of running completely dry. THIS IS A FRESHWATER EMERGENCY. Drought, pollution, leaking pipes and years of underinvestment are putting our rivers, water supplies and future at risk. But this crisis is solvable. With the right leadership and investment, we can turn things around. The Government must declare a national freshwater emergency and deliver a funded plan to secure our water future. Because if we don't act now, the UK will run dry. thetimes.com/article/7812e10…

Thames Water is failing its customers and our rivers. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Special Administration offers a way out of this crisis, a chance to put people and nature before creditors. Tell the PM to act now 👇 riveractionuk.com/email-andy…

WYE’S COUNCIL a new short film about the Wye Charter. ‘Wye’s Council - A Council-led River Charter’ made by Charlotte Sawyer (Rave on for the Avon) and Vey Straker (Lady Wye) especially for Councils and Councillors in other parts of the UK. youtu.be/WLKfoEehR1k?si=Xlvi… #rightsofnature

A glimpse of our Monday. We travelled from the Wye Valley to Westminster to lobby our MPs and ask them to challenge the government’s proposed Poultry Growth Strategy. This plan is being dreamed up (nightmared up 🧟‍♂️) by Defra and the Big Chicken lobby without community engagement