Britain’s most iconic waterways, including the jewel in the crown of its freshwater lakes, are “dying” say leading campaigners, because government agencies are failing to crack down on sewage and slurry polluters, posing a risk to health and wildlife.
Campaigners say years of swingeing cuts have fatally weakened the environment agency’s role in protecting England’s celebrated Lake Windermere in the north-west of the country, once inspiration for Romantic poet William Wordsworth of “Daffodils” fame.
Environmentalists accuse the agency of not using its enforcement powers to prevent water companies from discharging effluent from wastewater treatment works into the lake’s catchment area. The outflow from privately-owned septic tanks near the popular lake is also an issue….