To the Severn Navigation Restoration Trust
Sunday, April 14, 2002
Sir/Madam
I've just returned from a boating holiday with American friends during which we
travelled up and down a stretch of the Severn above Worcester. The weather
was kind and we had a wonderful time: everyone we met was kind and helpful, the
lock keepers on the Severn especially.
One minor irritation was the amount of litter on the banks of the river. For
long stretches, trees on either side were festooned with discarded plastic bags,
white or grey, which had evidently been caught there when the water level was
higher. I have to say that this often spoilt an otherwise lovely view.
I don't know if this is a permanent problem, or whether perhaps this is a
particularly bad time of year. But if there was a way to clean up this garbage,
the river would look very much more inviting.
Yours sincerely
Dennis Bray, Cambridge
iGreen comment
Interesting problem. I've never been on that lower
stretch of river but I know the sort of thing you mean. As usual, I guess
there are two main approaches.
1. Government, or the Environment Agency, or whoever, raises taxes and licences
and employs a team of men to go up and down the bank collecting the litter.
2. Government, or the Environment Agency, or whoever, sells or gives away the
navigation rights, locks etc. to some private institution. It doesn't
matter to whom, just so long as the rights are secure. They will be traded
to the person who values them most. That person makes money from
selling licences etc. and has a financial stake in a clean river. Probably,
they will keep the bank clean without asking because they will want to maximise
the amenity value. If they don't and voters think they really want a
cleaner bank than the market provides, the government could then simply
legislate for a particular level of cleanliness and fine the owners who fail to
comply.
The old nationalised water companies provide the perfect model. Under
government control they just kept on pumping shit in the rivers and sea. When
privatised and regulated and fined if they failed to clean up their act, they
cleaned up their act. Click here
for the story.
I suspect SNRT will be campaigning for the former. I think the latter will
give us cleaner riverbanks.
Jim Thornton
