It is quite strange to live in one of Europe’s largest wetlands and then worry that it is wet. With climate change, there is no economic feasible way that the Somerset Levels can be maintained in its 20th century state. No amount of river dredging or new pumps is going to stop a wetland metres below sea level in one of the wettest parts of the UK from being wet. We should decide to give the Marshes of Avalon back to nature gracefully: rehoming and compensating those affected, rather than being forced to do so in the wake of repeated tragedies. Let’s make these rare, precious & irreplaceable wetlands wet again.

The continuing efforts of local river guardians to investigate the Cherwell waste dump are really highlighting the utter incompetence of @EnvAgency & their failure to uphold the law. It now appears that complaints about the rubbish were made by local people as far back as May & the EA actually attended site in July. Having seen the devastation themselves, did they move to shut it down, as they could have done by blocking the site entrance & seeking a simple court order? Nope, they sent the owner of the land a sodding “stern letter” & let the dumping continue until late October! Failing in the same way as they did at Hoad’s Wood shows this is a systemic failure by the EA & needs government intervention. The investigation didn’t properly start until local river guardians contacted the media this week. Even now, their investigations are bearing more fruit than the EA’s. They guardians have found waste with names & addresses & traced it to the owner, who confirmed they put it in their municipal waste collection. If confirmed this shows the waste is the result of large scale fraud or corruption in the local authority waste management. Perhaps worst of all, the EA are now denying any duty to clean up the rubbish and plan to just leave it there & “monitor” it. Local river guardians have made a petition demanding a clean up. Please do sign it & support their campaign. c.org/brxtKnS9Tx

Hard to describe the feeling of satisfaction you get from being a river guardian seeing a sand martin nesting hole you campaigned to be installed being used for the first time. This morning I witnessed a sand Martin couple moving into their new build, affordable nest in the heart of Barking, & I couldn’t be more proud! Thanks to @ToureenGroup & @ArteliaUK for taking the time to effort to install these holes during the works on the wall- it really has made a difference for local wildlife.