CURAT: Cam Upper Reaches Action Team

It’s time to voice an ugly truth: I’ve been talking recently {privately} with ecologists, with very senior figures in the environmental NGOs, with activists and lawyers. What they say - privately - is stark: >This Govt is even worse on nature than the Sunak & Johnson Govts<. The best comparator is with the Truss regime, with its #attackonnature. But Truss lasted less long than a lettuce. We are stuck with this lot til 2029. Whether it’s Aarhus, habitats, planning, Starmer’s proposed bonfire of regulations, and on and on and on, both the rhetoric and the reality of Labour on nature are simply dire. Why? Because, just like Truss, they will sacrifice anything for a smidgeon of potential ‘growth’. And because there is no care at all for nature in their dna. They will throw anything under the bus for some possible short-term human material benefit. Never mind that humans NEED nature too! They don’t seem aware of that. … Please repost to express your agreement.

Wrong, wrong, wrong!! Put it on roofs and car parks.

"The information shows the Environment Agency (EA) only sent investigators to a small fraction of reported incidents last year and often relied on water companies - who may be responsible for the pollution - for updates.." Yep, the EA has effectively outsourced pollution monitoring and investigation to water companies the very people frequently responsible for the pollution in the first place. What could possibly go wrong? bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

eastangliabylines.co.uk/environment/dr… #rivers @camvalleyforum @WaterWaysProtct @theriverstrust @AquiferChalk @Feargal_Sharkey

"Rachel Reeves backs market-led deal to save Thames Water." When will this sorry tale end? thetimes.com/business-money…

The Government says it would cost £99bn to bring water into public hands. That figure's based on a report paid for by the water companies which Dieter Helm has called 'economically illiterate'. In any scenario public ownership of water makes most sense. Join our mailing list to stay in touch with our campaigns 👇

Today our trained volunteer water vole surveyors have been on the Kennet at The Wilderness, Kintbury, in advance of our P4N river restoration works this autumn. It was excellent to have 2 of our volunteers trained on Saturday join the team today. @NWessexDowns #citizenscience

"Crumbling water industry is damaging Britain’s economy, MPs warn." Not forgetting of course that yesterday the @CommonsPAC published one of the most damming, excoriating reports I've ever read on the water industry. Well done. 👏👏👏 telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/…

Serious pollution incidents up 60% in 2024 from previous year Three water companies responsible for 81% of serious incidents Thames. Southern. Yorkshire. What a mess.

"In its refusal to renationalise water, it’s clear the government operates in the interests of private capital and not of the country." As usual George gets to the nub of it in a single sentence. Government is no longer acting in our interests but that of the markets. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

"Windermere ‘had 200,000 litres of sewage dumped in it a day’." I see @unitedutilities still trying to hide behind their "oh but our permit allows us to do it", trick. Those of course would be those permits that were declared illegal not only by the European Court of Justice, the High Court in England but also the Office of Environmental Protection. PS. The EA claims that anything over 0.25mm in 24 hours can be classified as "heavy rain", that by the way is about 1/3 the thickness of a credit card. 🤔 thetimes.com/uk/environment…

Now that govt has fired off its two big sound bites, 1. Sending people to jail, which has actually been the law for the last 30 years anyway. 2. Banning bonuses, Thames Water chairman fixed that idea in seconds, says he'll just put up salaries. So none of it, none of it, not one single iota of any of it will make any difference whatsoever to how water companies behave. That it then, you run out of ideas?

Don’t get to sign …. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/7113…

"United Utilities disputed the findings, claiming that they were inaccurate and some of the data 'erroneous'. What an utterly brilliant job yesterday by @MattStaniek, @watervole3 and @WindrushWasp exposing yet more law breaking by the water industry. Just amazing. 👏👏👏 Oh when challenged by @BBCNews as to what was 'erroneous' about the findings @uugroupplc declined to comment. Pathetic! thetimes.com/uk/environment…

We urgently need to ban bottom trawl-fishing in the UK's marine protected areas. This industry ❌ Indiscriminately harms marine wildlife ❌ Destroys vital habitat from corals to seagrass ❌ Deepens the climate crisis ➡️81% of the British public support a ban. @OceanaUK

🚨 JUST OUT — privatised water companies DUMPED sewage for over 3.6 MILLION hours in 2024. Are you sick of this 💩? Do you want to end the profit from pollution crisis? Sign our petition for public ownership, starting with Thames Water: tinyurl.com/cd9y2pf8