{"id":1599,"date":"2022-01-21T07:30:34","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T07:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/?p=1599"},"modified":"2022-06-20T08:24:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T08:24:04","slug":"environment-agency-whistle-blowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/2022\/01\/21\/environment-agency-whistle-blowers\/","title":{"rendered":"Environment Agency Whistle Blowers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Environment Agency whistle blowers have revealed that the Agency has become &#8220;toothless&#8221; because monitoring has degraded, officers are given neither the resources nor the internal support to pursue enforcement action against pollution incidents, and they are encouraged to approve all but the very worst permit applications:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br><strong>According to the EA officers:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&nbsp;&#8220;&#8230;we\u2019re told, largely through the permitting process, to give business the benefit of the doubt, rather than the environment&#8221;.<br><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&nbsp;&#8220;Unless you can find a 100% solid reason not to grant something, you will grant it. The precautionary principle, which is what a lot of these decisions should be based on, is not prevalent \u2026 we don\u2019t really get to use it&#8221;<br><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&nbsp;&#8220;priority is given to the applicant rather than the environment unless it\u2019s absolutely clearcut.&#8221;<br><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&nbsp;&#8220;Should a polluter be caught, any tools that were at [its] disposal to take action have been systematically removed \u2026 Officers are actively encouraged not to take enforcement action, and asked to find another solution. We are no longer a deterrent to polluters&#8221;<br><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sadly, this will all be very familiar to anti-incineration campaigners. This scandal needs to be addressed, with the Agency given the powers, resources and policies they need so that pollution will be prevented rather than permitted!<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2022\/jan\/20\/environment-agency-cuts-staff-blow-whistle\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2022\/jan\/20\/environment-agency-cuts-staff-blow-whistle<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Environment Agency whistle blowers have revealed that the Agency has become &#8220;toothless&#8221; because monitoring has degraded, officers are given neither the resources nor the internal support to pursue enforcement action against pollution incidents, and they are encouraged to approve all but the very worst permit applications: According to the EA officers: &nbsp;&#8220;&#8230;we\u2019re told, largely through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1599"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1607,"href":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions\/1607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ni4h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}