\n Dr Cyril Bennett MBE is a resident of Amesbury and a specialist freshwater biologist.\n<\/p>\n
\n He has conducted a study over 10 years, the results of which highlighted serious issues with the current state of the River Avon.\n<\/p>\n
\n The River Avon is considered to be a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).\n<\/p>\n
\n He expressed concern that the Lord’s Walk – River Restoration Project, aimed at flood prevention, may unintentionally be damaging the river’s ecosystem.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dr Bennett said due to the project’s changes, the main flow of the river has been redirected along a smaller northern branch, resulting in stagnation and a build-up of silt, duckweed, and algae in the main river section through Lord’s Walk.\n<\/p>\n
\n The River Avon water flow (Image: Cyril Bennett)\n<\/p>\n
\n These factors suggest a “significant reduction” in the location’s population of freshwater invertebrates, including fewer molluscs and the absence of once common Caddisflies and Mayflies.\n<\/p>\n
\n These two species are both known to be sensitive to changes in water flow, according to Dr Bennett.\n<\/p>\n
\n A favourite spot among local families for picnics and paddling, the area known as the ‘carrier’, is also reportedly suffering.\n<\/p>\n
\n The biologist also explained that the river’s water quality was being severely impacted due to “a lack of regulation and robust routine monitoring”.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dr Bennett said: “Due to its disconnection from the mainstream of the river, it has begun to stagnate.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The monitoring of freshwater invertebrates is important for understanding the long-term health of rivers, but has been significantly reduced due to budget cuts at the Environment Agency (EA).\n<\/p>\n
\n “Consequently, the rivers are in danger of ecological collapse.\n<\/p>\n
\n The River Avon water flow (Image: Cyril Bennett)\n<\/p>\n
\n “Fish populations are dwindling, with species like the \u2018iconic\u2019 chalk stream salmon disappearing from rivers.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Moreover, pollution incidents and the decline in the ecological status of rivers will go unrecorded, and the accuracy of the ecological classification of our rivers will be compromised.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There are those that have destroyed it, those that have let them do it and those that are hiding it.\n<\/p>\n
\n “And we are doing nothing about it.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Dr Cyril Bennett’s findings present a bleak outlook for the River Avon, he says.\n<\/p>\n
\n In his view, the lack of monitoring, the restoration project, and overall inaction appear to be accelerating the ecological collapse of the river.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr Cyril Bennett MBE is a resident of Amesbury and a specialist freshwater biologist. He has conducted a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-251698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}