Fish Legal and Pickering Fishery Association have won a landmark judicial review in the High Court against the Government and the Environment Agency over its river improvement plans. The Court ruled that the Government, and the Environment Agency, had failed in their mandatory legal duties to review, update and put in place measures to restore rivers and other water bodies under the Water Framework Directive Regulations.

The angling club argued that the River Basin Management Plan for the Humber district, as signed off by then Secretary of State Therese Coffey, and published in December 2022, comprised wholly generic or yet to be formulated steps, lacked the legally required measures necessary to restore the Upper Costa Beck in Yorkshire, such as review and tightening of inadequate discharge permits and other authorisations to tackle the root causes of pollution in the river.

Link to press release and the High Court judgement.