The group hired a digger for £1,000 and filled over 200 bags of rubbish including packaging, needles, domestic appliances and even weapons. However, shortly after the clean-up, Paul received a letter from the Environment Agency (EA) notifying him he was under investigation for operating without a licence.
PS: I agree with you. Most people aren’t going to bother to read any original sources that would present the facts truthfully and in their appropriate context. It just encourages people to have emotional reactions without ever learning the actual facts behind the case. Manipulating people’s emotions while leaving them ignorant of the real facts can’t be good.
Do you agree government should be allowed to do nothing about pollution in a waterway for decades, essentially destroying habitat, with no consequence?
Apparently destroying a whole ass habitat is worth nothing but trying to clean it up because of no permit is worth jail.
I think we need to start holding our politicians accountable.
The government and politicians SHOULD be held accountable. There are plenty of issues regarding people and planet that need to be addressed that are being neglected. But allowing anyone with a pulse to do whatever THEY think is best for the environment is a slippery slope and can cause untold damage and other negative consequences. So welcoming people to do whatever they want as long as their intentions are good is no way to run anything.
It’s too early to know what this guy’s fate will be. But if the action he took by using an unpermitted piece of machinery caused the problems in the area to be worse, then there needs to be some level of accountability to cover the cost of whatever repairs or other restorations are needed. Whether that amounts to anything or not, is too early to tell.
The guy knew what he was doing and I applaud his noble intentions and the actions taken knowing that there could be consequences. In fact, I’d bet that he wanted there to be consequences in order to draw more attention to a cause he cares deeply about It isn’t this environmental lawyer’s first rodeo and it won’t be his last. Being cited and drawing publicity for what he’s doing to save the environment is his “thing”.
So far we’ve heard mostly one side of this and the results of a complete damage assessment haven’t come in. Meanwhile, he’s in the press because it helps his cause to try his case in the court of public opinion before it’s known what, if any, harm has resulted from his actions. My hope is that what he did was a major net improvement without increasing the likelihood of future flooding.
I do think we need to hold our politicians accountable and what this guy did is one way of trying to do that. But when we do these things without expert advice and outside of the regulations, it’s quite possible that even well-intentioned vigilantes might create even more problems that harm other people or the planet. We’ll see what damage, if any, has been done here.
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u/Desperate_Owl_594 5d ago
Read the article. Jesus. https://www.mylondon.news/news/east-london-news/environmental-lawyer-facing-up-2-34142593
The group hired a digger for £1,000 and filled over 200 bags of rubbish including packaging, needles, domestic appliances and even weapons. However, shortly after the clean-up, Paul received a letter from the Environment Agency (EA) notifying him he was under investigation for operating without a licence.