Council takes on Environment Agency and water firm over ‘perilous state of rivers’

The motion, put to North Hertfordshire District Council by Liberal Democrat councillor Tom Tyson last night, expresses concern about the “perilous state of the upper reaches of the River Ivel and other local chalk streams, including the Rivers Purwell and Hiz and St Ippolyts Brook”. 

Chalk rivers are globally rare and their wetlands are important habitats for a wide range of species.

The council’s motion notes that stretches of the River Ivel have been “continuously dry… for a period of well over a year” and that there has been “no flow in the upper Ivel during half the months of the previous four years”.