Councillors voted unanimously to support a motion tabled by Green Party group leader Lucy Galvin for the River Wensum to be granted special status.

Her proposal aimed to establish fundamental rights for the waterway, which is one of just 200 rare chalk streams in the world, as part of a growing global movement.

It calls for all rivers to be granted the right to flow and be free from pollution.

Lucy Galvin, interim leader of the Green group at City Hall (Image: Lauren De Boise)

"This is a bold and forward-thinking step," said Ms Galvin, with Liberal Democrat Judith Lubbock also supporting the motion.

"This will recognise the river has a living entity that has the right to exist," said Ms Lubbock.

But while there was strong support for improving the health of the river, which has suffered from over-abstraction and pollution, Labour councillors disagreed on whether rights could be granted to a non-human entity.

Richard Lawes, Labour councillor for Bowthorpe, believed there was no legal basis to grant a river 'rights'.

"It is a river, it is not a person or deity," added........

© Eastern Daily Press