Abingdon Hydro’s project to generate hydroelectricity from the River Thames weir now has an Environment Agency licence.

At local events, most recently Fun in the Parks, we have been pleased to find strong support.

It will be environmentally benign but the Angling Trust, as you reported (Oxford Mail, June 2, is highly critical.

They say that we damage the ecology of the river but we have not been shown any evidence to back that up.

They complain about the effect on flow-loving species but the river will continue to flow as before and we will add a new fish pass.

They say we should be monitoring the fish, but we don't know what for. Bird watchers, for example, do their own monitoring.

The trust complains about damage to spawning habitats but we find little agreement about where the fish spawn.

We are willing to talk to them, as we are doing with the canoe clubs but all we get is a barrage of criticism.

There is a strong angling lobby inside the Environment Agency and the Angling Trust wants to make the agency’s regulations as difficult as possible.

That would make it hard for local projects like ours to afford the work needed for a licence.

Then instead of the benefits coming back to our community, a large company would come in and do it for their own shareholders.

Richard Riggs, Director, Abingdon Hydro