The state of our rivers

Sunday 17th July 2022

Rowan and I ran a stand at the Combe Mill Birds, Bees, Bats and Badger Fair today. We were very lucky as we had our stand under the willow trees by the river - it was so much cooler than out of the shade. We got really good interest and had some great conversations with people. We also met a guy who has lived on the Blenheim estate all his life and worked on the woods there ant Combe Mill. He mentioned that he was running a conservation volunteer group up until 2018 but he had given it up as there wasnt enough interest. I asked if he would be interested in helping out with our Duke of Edinburgh volunteers and he was keen. What a result - I took his number and will call him in a month or so. Overall it was a great day and we agreed that we would do it again next year.

The bad news was the state of the river, you can see the muck (sewage) caught in the reed in the river - it actually looked worse than it did when we were here on Friday. We had a lot of conversations with people today about the state of the river - and disgusting is all you can say. This is the report out last week from the Environment Agency on the state of the water companies 2021 - it doesnt make pleasant reading. Water and sewerage companies in England: environmental performance report 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)