Paul Powlesland
@paulpowlesland
Rights of nature & climate campaigner. Barrister & river guardian. Protecting trees & rivers. Founder @lawfornature & @riverroding. @paulpowlesland.bsky.social
Another day, another right wing, developer dog whistle attack on Aarhus cost caps. Those who are trying to protect nature are already hugely outgunned & outspent by developers & those who would profit from destroying it & Aarhus cost caps go some way to redressing this power…
Britain is subsidising the no-hope lawsuits NIMBYs use to delay housebuilding and infrastructure. In this clip, Kent’s CPRE admit they probably wouldn’t have brought a lawsuit to stop a 160 home development if it wasn’t for the Aarhus Cost Caps.
This really says it all. One of the most respected water activists submits a detailed dossier on water company illegality to the Cunliffe review & they completely ignore the issue, proposing instead a new regulator who can continue to ignore the rampant criminality in the water…
Cunliffe doesn't refer to "illegality". Only once to "illegal" saying it is difficult to say "whether a storm overflow discharge is legal or illegal. I submitted extensive evidence of water company illegality but no reference is made. @Feargal_Sharkey @MattStaniek @WindrushWasp
The sound of deckchairs being scraped today, as the Cunliffe Report on the future of the water industry is published without being able to even consider the key issue of whether privatisation of the water industry has failed and re-nationalisation would be better for customers &…
I visited the oldest remaining Anglo-Saxon inhabitation in England: the cave church & hermit dwelling of Anchor Church in Derbyshire. The caves still felt like a sacred space, albeit unlike any I had experienced in England before. Apart from the disused cooling towers of…
“Oi, have you got a licence for that pond?” The Environment Agency have now taken time out of their busy schedule of ignoring environmental crime to pay me a visit & threaten me with prosecution for creating a pond without a permit. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so…
With the hot weather we’ve been having this summer, the local insects, birds & wildlife have really been appreciating the newly completed pond beside the River Roding in Barking. I had the idea for creating one of the largest ponds alongside the river in January, & this pond…
First blackberry of the year today & by the looks of things it’s going to be a good season. The scratches, the blood you’ve drawn, the constant toil to keep paths open: all is forgiven bramble.
“You are Englishmen, mind your privilege, give not away your right” So spoke William Penn (founder of Pennsylvania) to the jury as he was bound & gagged after the jury refused to come to the guilty verdict that the judge in the case was demanding. This led to the famous Bushel’s…
The government has utterly given up trying to control destructive invasive species & is simply allowing them to spread out of control. The Roding has the largest remaining tidal marshes in London. Once one of the most extensive landscapes in London, less than 1% now remains, so…
Talking about the Port of London Authority, I’m not sure many people grasp how fundamentally undemocratic the organisation is. The PLA was gifted the Thames by Parliament in 1908 & has zero democratic oversight by Londoners, the Mayor, GLA or even the UK Government. If you don’t…
A reminder that we cannot have this in London, not only because the Thames is too polluted, but also because we have left the tidal Thames in the sole hands of an unaccountable legacy organisation founded in 1908 called the Port of London Authority (@LondonPortAuth) which…
Investigating an illegal sewage outfall on the Roding, I saw what looked like rust on the flap. Peering closer, I discovered it was actually dozens of moths, perfectly camouflaging themselves to the colour of the metal & seemingly enjoying their Ilford sewage steambath. Nature…
