THE Environment Agency has stopped operating mill flood gates on the river made famous by the artist John Constable because it says the structures do not comply with modern health and
safety standards. The ban applies to 18 cast iron mill sluices on the Stour, Colne and Blackwater in Essex and Suffolk and some of their tributaries. Conservationists say that not operating the sluices has emptied 18 miles of the Stour, with implications for wildlife habitat, fishing and the control of watermeadows where the water levels have been managed for at least 1,000 years. Adrian Walters, of the Sudbury Common Lands Charity, which manages 210 acres of river bank on either side of the Stour in Sudbury, said the decision initially to leave one of the flood gates open had a drastic impact on wildlife. “The whole ecosystem was compromised when the water dropped away,” he said. “There were snails left high and dry and sticklebacks in small pools, some dead and others dying.” Daily Telegraph 6/11/06.
safety standards. The ban applies to 18 cast iron mill sluices on the Stour, Colne and Blackwater in Essex and Suffolk and some of their tributaries. Conservationists say that not operating the sluices has emptied 18 miles of the Stour, with implications for wildlife habitat, fishing and the control of watermeadows where the water levels have been managed for at least 1,000 years. Adrian Walters, of the Sudbury Common Lands Charity, which manages 210 acres of river bank on either side of the Stour in Sudbury, said the decision initially to leave one of the flood gates open had a drastic impact on wildlife. “The whole ecosystem was compromised when the water dropped away,” he said. “There were snails left high and dry and sticklebacks in small pools, some dead and others dying.” Daily Telegraph 6/11/06.
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