Conservative Administration show complacency over the state of our Rivers. Again…

After the underwhelming response from the Conservative Cabinet to the All-party Scrutiny Review of Water supply and disposal in Maidstone it was perhaps not a surprise, but still a profound disappointment that once again the Administration has ignored proposals to improve the quality of our local rivers. At Wednesday’s Cabinet Meeting a report was presented following a reference from Council to investigate setting up a task force to improve the quality of Rivers in the Medway Basin in collaboration with the relevant agencies and interested parties.  This could have facilitated co-operation on reducing pollution, and flooding and improving natural habitats.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Clive English who attended the meeting to try and get the Cabinet to support the proposal said “the decision to not set up the task force on the basis that the existing arrangements for dealing with the many issues affecting our local rivers are working just fine defies belief, they clearly are not, and it is tragic that the Cabinet do not seem to realise this”.

Tony Harwood Lib Dem Group planning spokesperson and chair of River Len Local Nature Reserve management committee added: "The Cabinet really need to get out more! Our local watercourse are being sucked-dry by water company over-abstraction, polluted by sewage and runoff and strangled by man-made barriers, while their banks are heavily littered and wildlife is dying."