A wildlife campaigner has spoken of his despair after the River Kennet dried up this winter.

All Party Parliamentary Angling Group chairman Charles Walker is upset over the state of the river upstream of Marlborough College, where it is devoid of water in stretches of what should be a fast-flowing trout stream.

It is extremely rare for the river to dry up during winter, although summer droughts such as that in 1975-76 saw the same stretches left waterless and looking like gravel cart tracks.

On Saturday, river campaign group Action for the River Kennet (ARK) hosted a visit for Devizes MP Claire Perry to inspect the dry river bed at Manton. She was joined by Mr Walker, MP for Broxbourne in Hertfordshire and a lifelong fisherman, and Reading MP Martin Salter, campaigns director for the Angling Trust.

ARK was represented by its chairman Dr Geoffrey Findlay, farmer and committee member Martin Gibson, John Lawson and Charlotte Hitchmough.

A group of concerned residents also joined in the walk along the dry river.

Mr Walker, who as a child used to fish the Kennet with his grandfather, said he was depressed to see the deep swirling mill pool where he caught his first trout reduced to a small puddle.

He said: “My grandfather would be turning in his grave.”

Mrs Perry said the critical drop in river levels was caused by the short-term low rainfall the area has experienced over the past 18 months, combined with excessive water abstraction. ARK has been campaigning for Thames Water to stop pumping millions of litres of water a day from boreholes in the Kennet basin.

Mrs Perry said there needed to be a system to stop water companies abstracting water when rivers were drying up.

The MPs said the new Water White Paper would place a value on water that reflected its scarcity and value to the natural environment.

Dr Findlay welcomed the aspirations and ideas in the Water White Paper, but said ARK was calling for clear deadlines for action from the Government.

Mrs Perry said she welcomed Thames Water initiatives Care for the Kennet and Save Water Swindon, both aimed at encouraging people to reduce water use.