YOUR report about the oil slick on the River Ouse. (Evening Press, November 21) prompts this letter.

I regularly fish the river below York and it is a pleasure to see the resident swan with its young, plus an abundance of ducks and kingfishers.

While match fishing at Bishopthorpe recently the inside margin of the river was covered by an oil slick and the stench was oppressive.

The swans did not visit us as they normally do for food and very few ducks were seen.

During the match I only saw a kingfisher only once. Because of the oil on the surface very few fish were rising to the surface. How can a spokesman from the Environment Agency say: "Most of the diesel seems to have been dispersed through York which doesn't have valuable habitat"?

It would appear from this spokesman that the river below York does not exist and is totally devoid of wild life.

Robert Swift,

Upper Croft,

Haxby

York.

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