Anglers call for 'proper plan' to tackle oil spill

Anglers have called on the Environment Agency (EA) to "come up with a proper plan" to contain an oil spill that they believe is flowing into a river.

The spill, beside the A14, north of Woodford, Northamptonshire, was reported on 28 December and is thought to have been dumped by fly-tippers.

Locals said that heavy rain over the weekend meant containment booms had failed to stop the spill seeping into a tributary of the nearby River Nene. However, the EA said the booms were working, adding that it had taken dozens of tonnes of polluted water away from the site.

Connor Bryan from Nene Anglers fishing club said the spill risked becoming a "major pollution event".

He said: "Oil is a poison, especially when mixed with water. Birds, fish, people, pets and livestock are all at risk.

"The situation has been mismanaged. There's been no containment [of the spill] whatsoever."

Nick Urquhart, who runs a local litter-picking group and is also a member of Nene Anglers, said the situation was becoming critical.

"It's a disaster not only for anglers, but for all the people who use and enjoy the Nene Valley," he said.

Last week the EA said the spill was equivalent to "1,000 bathtubs" and work to clear it would resume on Monday.

In a statement, the EA, which initially attended the scene on 1 February – more than a month after the spill was first reported – said: "Excess water has been pumped from the tributary to make sure the oil that was dumped is well contained within the booms that our team have deployed.

"Our contractors have been operating a cleanup operation this week and will be onsite again on Monday to continue with the process.

"We encourage anyone who has any information about this incident or wishes to report an environmental incident to call our 24/7 hotline on 0800 807060."

Richard Johnstone, the owner of the land where the oil was dumped, said it was clear that heavy rain had hampered the clean-up operation but shared frustration that the EA had not acted sooner.

"The authorities can't be everywhere at once [but] if things had been acted on sooner, we wouldn't have gotten to where we are now.

"We need to get the countryside back to the way it was and all of the wildlife back secure in their habitats."

Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.