Inspections and pollution tests drop

A recent investigation has uncovered the number of site inspections by the EA has fallen by more than a third over the past four years. Since 2013, the EA has hugely scaled back environmental checks on farms, industrial sites and water courses, whilst facing a 20% cut in its workforce. Last year, there were nearly 5,000 fewer annual site inspections than in 2014, the year when the EA first started recording data in its current form.