RIVER Teifi anglers are preparing for showdown talks next month, almost a year after a huge pollution incident near Tregaron decimated fish stocks.

Well over 1,000 salmon and brown trout are believed to have died following a suspected slurry leak last December and fishermen say nothing is being done to prevent such a re-occurence.

Anglers believe the leak – covering an eight-mile stretch of the Teifi – began at a farm near Tregaron.

Natural Resources Wales – who will meet with members of the Teifi Local Fisheries Group at Lampeter on 15 November – say they are continuing to gather evidence with a view to probable legal action.

But 10 months on, anglers are impatient at the apparent lack of progress and fear a repeat of what one expert described as “an ecological disaster”.

“Those of us who fish the Teifi day in, day out are completely fed up with NRW,” Harry Jackson, a Cilgerran-based river guide and former lead singer of ‘60s Midlands beat group The Applejacks, told the Cambrian News.

“They have two main remits: to look after the waterways and to look after the fish and in our opinion they are not fit for purpose on either.

“Whenever you google ‘River Teifi’ the first thing tourists or visiting anglers see is the term ‘massive pollution’ – the NRW should have come out and at least given some balance to the situation.”

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