We’ve been fighting the Government in Court to force them to ACT NOW to meet their legally binding targets for river health nationwide by 2027. Join us.
#EVERY
RIVER
COUNTS
In 2023, with a group of Yorkshire anglers, we took the last Government to court and won a landmark legal case over its failure to make more progress towards restoring rivers and lakes across the country. But that ruling was appealed. In 2025, in the Court of Appeal, we won again.
There are 4,929 waterbodies in England. We need a plan for each and every one.
IN THE NEWS
Government and Environment Agency taken to court over Costa Beck failure.
Fishermen in North Yorkshire win landmark river legal case.
We won in the
Court of Appeal!
“This case goes to the heart of why the Government has failed to make progress towards improving the health of rivers and lakes in England. The Environment Agency and the Government have taken a deliberately high-level, generic – and effectively non-committal – approach to achieving the restoration targets when what was needed was a waterbody-by-waterbody plan of real action to stop the damage.“
– Andrew Kelton, Fish Legal Solicitor
THE STORY SO FAR
2003
The Water Framework Directive was implemented across the UK. It required Governments to use River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) to restore degraded water bodies (rivers, lakes and estuaries) to good ecological health by 2027 – a 24-year plan comprising four 6-year cycles.
2022
The Environment Agency published its third round of River Basin Management Plans in December 2022 (a year late). The Secretary of State for the Environment at the time – Therese Coffey – signed them off.
2023
Acting on behalf of Pickering Fishery Association, Fish Legal won a ground-breaking judicial review that declared the Humber Basin River Management Plan and measures to restore Yorkshire’s Costa Beck in the final RBMP cycle unlawful – in effect, a ‘model’ of national failure.
2024
The Government in Westminster, with the Environment Agency, announced that it planned to appeal against the landmark ruling, given its widespread implications.
2025
On January 14 and 15, we faced the Government and the Environment Agency in the Court of Appeal over its defective plans to restore rivers nationwide. On 2 April, the Court dismissed the Government’s appeal.
2027
The legally binding deadline for every single river to achieve good ecological health.
16%
of waterbodies in England
are currently achieving
‘good ecological status’.
86%
of rivers in England
are degraded.
4929
The number of separate waterbodies
in England. We need a plan to restore
every single one to good health
by 2027 because Every River Counts.
WHAT YOU
CAN DO
Together we need to send a message to this new Government that is has to ACT NOW to restore every single waterbody to good health by 2027.
That’s the deadline. It can’t be put off or pushed back. There’s no time to waste.
Please support us.
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