A WOMAN who married the River Avon has successfully urged councillors to take more action to protect it.
Bath and North East Somerset Council voted unanimously at its full council meeting on July 16 to endorse a charter to respect the river’s “rights” to exist, slow sustainably, and not be polluted.
Campaign group We are Avon wants all councils along the 83-mile length of the river to follow suit.
Meg Avon, a researcher and performance poet who married the river in a ceremony in 2023 to raise awareness of water pollution, was among public speakers at the meeting calling on the council to back the charter.
She said: “Recognising these rights is not a radical act. Humans and nature are not separate, we are together.”
She said that We Are Avon already had 120 river guardians monitoring the river and 260,000 acres of its bioregion.
The campaign group is now trying to get every council along the course of the river and its tributaries to sign up to the “charter for our Avon bioregion.”
In May, the River Wye became the first British river to have every council from its source to its mouth commit to a charter to protect it and ensure it is considered in council discussions.
Tabling the motion to protect the River Avon, councillor Andy Wait (Keynsham East, Liberal Democrat) told B&NES Council: “This is what I want for our Avon.”
He said: “I expect all councils – unitary, town, and parish – to adopt this charter from the source to the sea. One council, Winsley Parish Council in Wiltshire, has already adopted the charter, which is great for us because the water that flows through Winsley is the same that flows through B&NES.”
The resolution passed by the council is intended to cover the wider river area, including tributaries, and other issues such as agricultural runoff and industrial pollution, as well as water companies’ sewage dumping.
Keynsham Town Council, of which Cllr Wait is chair, voted to endorse the river charter at its meeting on July 21.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporting Service
Pictured, the River Avon running through Keynsham
Charter to protect River Avon wins Keynsham backing
