Green candidate to be Hertford and Stortford MP, Nick Cox, gets regional party to declare ‘water crisis’ in East Herts

The Eastern Region Green Party has unanimously declared a ‘water crisis’ in East Herts and pledged to protect rare chalk streams like the River Stort.

The motion at the annual general meeting was proposed by Cllr Nick Cox, the party’s candidate bidding to unseat Hertford and Stortford’s Conservative MP Julie Marson at the next General Election.

His motion said: “We are sleepwalking towards a major environmental disaster for Hertfordshire’s chalk streams, including significant harm to biodiversity and adverse impacts on irreplaceable habitats.

“The party therefore declares an ecological emergency and pledges to act as guardians of our rivers, reducing the threats to their health and survival. We call on all citizens of East Hertfordshire to engage with our chalk streams in a relationship of respect and stewardship and to cease their exploitation.”

Cllr Cox is an East Herts Council member for Ware Trinity and a Stanstead St Margarets parish councillor.

His intervention was seconded by Cllr Martin Butcher, an Independent member for Ware St Mary’s on East Herts Council – and its former chair – and a Green Party member of Ware Town Council.

The motion notes that East Herts is home to seven of only 210 rare chalk streams in the world and set out a bill of rights for the River Lea and its tributaries: the Stort, Rib, Mimram, Beane, Ash and Quin.

The party agreed they should be free from over-abstraction and free from pollution with the right to flow naturally.

Cllr Cox told colleagues that in 2022 the Environment Agency reported there were 169 discharges of raw sewage into East Herts’ rivers for a combined 1,799 hours – nearly 75 days of discharging.

The Eastern Region Green Party wants action to ensure “an integrated sustainable water system aimed at achieving water neutrality for new settlements”.