Each week I look at about 15 websites to prepare CMS Water News. I’m only too well aware that I can’t know everything but I discovered this week that River Basin District Liaison Panels were disbanded in February. These were seen as a key part of the governance arrangements for managing the Water Framework Directive. In the late 2000’s they were often seen as remote from the operational delivery at a catchment level and the first set of River Basin Plans merely confirmed this.

This is now ‘old news’, but one would have expected to see some public communication of this decision. Nothing then and nothing on the web now. The ‘silence model’ of communication seems to all too prevalent currently. Mentions of the Water Framework Directive are now becoming rarer than hens teeth. This is the polar opposite of Trump land and a very British way of operating. It links in with what Chris Smith said about the gagging of the Agencies.

I’d be more than happy to publish the link to the RBDL Panel decision if anyone has documentation just for the record.