Storm overflow plan 'needs flushing down the lavatory once and for all' say angling groups as perilous state of English rivers revealed

The plan to cut storm overflows by 50% by 2030 is ‘far too little and far too late’, according to the river charity Wildfish, as campaigners and politicians react to the publication of the Cunliffe Report. ‘The law is gin-clear that it is illegal to spill raw sewage into rivers in anything other than exceptional circumstances,’ comments chief executive Nick Measham. ‘What we need is the Government and the regulators to enforce the law now and let the investment flow in consequence. The discredited storm-overflow plan — dreamt up to save political face — needs flushing down the lavatory once and for all.’

The Environment Agency (EA), scathingly described by the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee report as ‘missing in action’, recently stated that serious pollution incidents have ris