'Your chicken is killing our rivers': Joanna Lumley's fury at Nando's

By Steph Spyro, Deputy Political Editor

Dame Joanna Lumley and Chris Packham are among the celebrities who person accused Nando’s of “killing” British rivers.

The stars, including Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and Dominic West, person demanded that the edifice concatenation cleanable up its proviso concatenation and code its publication to terrible stream pollution.

In an unfastened missive to the nutrient chain’s CEO Mark Standish, they said: “Millions of Brits person shared countless “cheeky Nando’s” moments. Nando’s is simply a British icon—which is precisely wherefore we request to talk. Your chickenhearted is sidesplitting our rivers.

“The Wye utilized to beryllium 1 of Britain's astir beauteous rivers. Now? It's turning into a brown, lifeless messiness - sidesplitting wildlife, destroying habitats, and adjacent making section children sick aft swimming. 

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“The culprit? Pollution from mill farms that proviso chickenhearted to large edifice chains similar you.”

The River Wye, successful Herefordshire, is highly polluted by manure flowing into its rivers from millions of factory-farmed chickens successful the area.

Chicken manure contains precocious levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, making it a bully fertiliser for crops.

However, the nutrients tin pb to excessive maturation of algae successful waterways, starving the stream of oxygen and sidesplitting fish.

The radical assertion successful their letter, backed by River Action, The Rivers Trust, Friends of the Wye, and the Angling Trust, that Nandos' suppliers are contributing to the ecological destruction.

A spokeswoman for Nando’s said: “We attraction passionately astir the situation and having a affirmative impact. We person a h2o argumentation successful spot for each our chickenhearted suppliers. 

“We volition conscionable with River Action and we are blessed to sermon with them however this mightiness beryllium further improved. 

“We are not polluting the River Wye, and our supplier has assured america that nary manure is spread, stored oregon different disposed of connected immoderate of the chickenhearted farms we root from. We volition beryllium conducting an autarkic third-party audit to supply further assurances."