Pollution fears for River Glaven after torrential rain

Roger Combe said silt in the river could be carrying phosphates, nitrates and heavy metals

Conservationists believe silt washed into a river after torrential rain has caused "lasting damage".

Roger Combe owns the Bayfield Estate near Holt, Norfolk, through which the River Glaven runs to the North Sea.

Forecasters said parts of Norfolk received a month's worth of rainfall within one hour, which lead to flooding in recent days.

Mr Combe said: "The silt is at the bottom of the lake... you can't dredge it, dredging is far too expensive".

He said: "When you get big rain events like this, you do get water running into the lake, but we have tried our hardest to keep the river water out to try to purify the water.

"On an event like we had last week... unfortunately it overtopped into the lake and brought an awful lot of silt down with it."

Although the river has now cleared, he said, the silt had remained in the river.

Mr Combe added: "The silt is at the bottom of the lake with whatever it was carrying, which was phosphates, nitrates, heavy metals - you can't dredge it, dredging it is far too expensive".

Contractors are working with the energy firm Orsted to lay a cable from an offshore wind farm at Hornsea to the National Grid - which Mr Combes believes is contributing to the levels of silt in the river and lake.

Simon Harrap described the colour of the flood water as being like "milky coffee"

Simon Harrap, who runs the gardens and nursery centre Natural Surroundings on the Bayfield Estate, said the colour of the flood water resembled "milky coffee".

"We are very concerned, we fairly often get flooding mostly in the winter and we are always worried about the quality of the water that comes from floods," he said.

"If there's particularly high levels of rainfall we are concerned about what might be coming out and down into the river."

He said he had never seen as much silt in the water as he did last week.

A spokesperson for Orsted said the company was "aware of issues following heavy rains and storms in the local area".

"As a responsible developer, we take this issue very seriously," the spokesperson said.

"We are working closely with our contractors, the Environment Agency and other local stakeholders to thoroughly investigate the events and are taking active steps to ensure that mitigation measures in place on our site can handle extreme weather."

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: "We take pollution incidents seriously and are considering all appropriate action against anyone we suspect to have committed offences, with our officers currently gathering evidence."