Peterborough and District Angling Club say the Environment Agency should have repaired River Welland bank sooner

‘Lots of babies’ are being killed because of a failure to act in time to repair a hole in river bank, say anglers.

Peterborough and District Angling Association have been highlighting the plight of fish stocks in the River Welland at Spalding for months after the water levels have been kept artificially low by the Environment Agency due to breach in the bank at Crowland.

Now the club has learned, via a Freedom of Information request, that the agency did not consult its fisheries department before taking the decision to keep the levels low - which is sparking fears for the wider ecology of the river.

Rob Harris, chair of Peterborough and District Angling Association, is angry that the bank has not been repaired six months after Storm Henk.

He said: “We are very disappointed there has been no further action on this. This has displaced fish stock at a critical time of year for spawning so it has the potential to affect future generations of fish.

“The fact that they have allowed the fish to be killed by predators which damages fish stocks but has completely wiped out spawning season. We are killing a lot of babies.

“We sent a Freedom of Information request to the EA who replied to say they did not consult fisheries before making the decision to evacuate the river. They have gone into something completely blind. There is very little joined up thinking between the departments.”

He added that hoped that the EA would learn from this to ‘avoid unnecessary damage to the ecology’ in the future’

Mr Harris also said that the EA needed to specify a formal date of when this can be repaired.

He said: “Six months down the line, we are disappointed in addition to the consultation but there has been no further action.

“Frankly you know when nesting season is and it should have been avoided by repairing it in the relevant time scale but it becomes an issue and demonstrates a failure to act at the right time.”

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