The singer and environmentalist Feargal Sharkey is threatening to take the Environment Agency to court for draining a river that hosts the oldest fishing club in England and putting a rare population of brown trout at risk.
The former Undertones frontman chairs the Amwell Magna Fishery, which has used the secluded stretch of the River Lea in Hertfordshire since 1841.
Lawyers for the fishery have written to the EA to order the regulator to immediately stop abstracting from that section of the river, saying they will commence a judicial review if it does not comply.
The EA has been accused of illegally abstracting from this section of the Lea, which hosts the only population of breeding brown trout on the watercourse. The fishing club says this will kill off the fish, which need a certain level of oxygen to live.
The Amwell Magna Fishery on the River Lea in Hertfordshire in 1888. Photograph: Alamy
England is in the grip of a devastating drought, with hosepipe bans in place in areas across the country and water companies asking permission to abstract water from rivers that are already below a viable state.
Sharkey has called the EA’s actions “environmental vandalism unmatched in recent history”. He and the fishing club have enlisted the law firm Leigh Day to write a pre-action protocol letter.
According to the letter, the EA began reducing the flow of the River Lea between Ware and Stanstead Abbotts on 3 June 2025, without, the letter claims, any statutory authority. The EA has not given a reason for the abstraction, but similar methods are often used to help manage the flows of other rivers in the area.
The stretch of the river is important for many species of fish including trout and grayling, and is tended by the members of the fishing club. They have been horrified to see the Lea dwindle to a trickle. The ecosystem on which trout and other wildlife – including protected bird species such as the bittern, shoveler and gadwall – depend requires fast-moving and clean water. Members have also been prevented from fishing at the site because of the low flow.
The ecosystem on which brown trout depend relies on fast-moving, clean water. Photograph: Liam Marsh/Alamy
Sharkey said: “What is most extraordinary in all of this is that very government agency established to protect, conserve and ensure our river’s futures is now engaged in decimating the oldest populations of breeding brown trout in the River Lea, an act of environmental vandalism unmatched in recent history.
“At a time when the regulation of our waterways is under such intense scrutiny you would assume that the Environment Agency would be desperate to do the right thing. Well, that time has come. It is now time to make sure that our rivers can and do have a bright, prosperous future. It’s time to act, it’s time to do the right thing.”
The legal letter says that generally 156m litres of water used to flow each day in the Lea, but this was cut in June to 66m litres. The letter claims that on 19 June 2025, the EA reduced the flow further to 30m litres a day, before quickly bringing it back up to 66m.
The letter asks the EA to immediately cease abstraction and bring the river back to its natural flow. Photograph: Kayco/Getty Images
When the flow of water drops to these low volumes, oxygen levels decline, killing off the aquatic life within. The fishery falls within a site of special scientific interest and a special protection area, so lawyers argue the EA has a legal duty to protect the river.
The lawyers also say the Amwell Magna Fishery, as a holder of fishing rights in the area, is entitled to the natural flow of water in the River Lea into and through the fishery, so interference with the flow may in law be considered as nuisance, trespass or a breach of statutory duty.
The letter asks the EA to immediately cease abstraction and bring the river back to its natural flow, adding: “If we do not receive a satisfactory response to this letter, we propose to advise our client to make an application for judicial review without further recourse to you.”
Ricardo Gama, a partner at Leigh Day, said: “Our client is perplexed by the Environment Agency’s inexplicable decision to alter the flow of the River Lea. In our client’s view, not only has this had a devastating impact on a stretch of the river, which is an internationally designated habitat, it has put at risk a brown trout conservation project that the agency itself was running with our client.
“We have now sent a judicial review pre-action letter requesting that the agency urgently restores flow to our client’s stretch of the river.”
The EA has been contacted for comment.
