THE Environment Agency plans to pump millions of pounds into the Wye over 10 years and bring 'bustle' back to the river.

Access, moorings and facilities will be improved by investment intended to 'put more people on the river', according to a statement sent by the agency to the Hereford Times.

Those that fought the agency to keep local control of the waterway say that the new strategy vindicates their nine-year stand.

The agency sought and won statutory powers from central government to manage navigation on the river and its tributaries.

A revived local corporation, the Company of Proprietors of the Rivers Wye and Lugg Navigation and Horse Towing-Path - which first assumed similar powers in the 1800s - made its own claim.

Having taken more twists and turns than the river itself, a four-year wait for the findings of a public inquiry ended in 2002 with the Government favouring Environ-ment Agency control.

A Wye Navigation Advisory Committee was set up this year to work with the agency.

Now the agency says the Wye is one of three waterways on which it wants to spend 'millions'.

It was doing exactly what the Company of Proprietors proposed - and the Hereford Times reported - in November 1994, said Frank Barton, a long-term campaigner for local control of the river.

"So what have the millions of pounds and thousands of hours spent on the issue been for?" he asked.

The agency's plans are set out in the Your Rivers For Life strategy, targeting the Thames and the Fens as well as the Wye over the next 10 years.

Barbara Young, chief executive of the Environment Agency, said that the number of people using rivers for 'fun and relaxation' had dropped over recent years.

"We would like to see this trend reversed. The plan could see the biggest sustained investment in the rivers that we oversee since the 1950s. We need to work with government, businesses and local groups to raise funding and support."