SOME days ago the Evening Press reported that an amount of slurry had entered the River Foss as a result of "over-enthusiastic muck-spreading". Something that sounds almost like a quaint rural tradition is now described as a "disaster" with the death of countless fish, distress for wildfowl and round-the-clock working by the Environment Agency.

Each week you print the names of those who don't have a television licence, ride bikes without lights or beg in the streets. But we read nothing about the identity of the - presumably - farmer responsible for such irresponsible environmental destruction.

Last summer a firm building houses next to The Grange flushed drains into the Foss, causing similar damage. They were never identified and, as far as I know, escaped prosecution.

Could we not see investigative journalism identifying those who cause widespread environmental damage and report the penalty (if any) they receive for doing so?

J C Bonner,

Huntington Road, York.

Updated: 10:47 Monday, August 11, 2003