Farmer jailed for illegal bulldozing of riverbank has term reduced

A farmer jailed for 12 months after hiring diggers and an 18-ton bulldozer to illegally strip trees and vegetation from riverbanks in Herefordshire has had his prison term reduced on appeal.

John Price, 68, was originally sentenced to immediate custody and ordered to pay £600,000 prosecution costs by a district judge on April 20, in what Natural England and the Environment Agency said was the worst river-side destruction the organisations had seen.

Legal action was brought by both groups, which claimed the affected area could take several decades to recover, following the unlawful works, including dredging of the river’s bed, carried out during 2020 and 2021.