A gathering of heavyweight speakers are set to highlight the growing problems facing English chalkstreams on Monday. Led by  Lord de Mauley, the environment minister in the House of Lords, they will be making a case for rivers like the Test, Itchen and Avon to be given special protection, because they are under threat from increased abstraction and pollution. The summit, at the renowned Grosvenor Hotel in Stockbridge, will have a range of speakers including film-maker Hugh Miles, former Friends of the Earth boss Tony Juniper, Salmon and Trout Association director Paul Knight and former minister for fishing Martin Salter. The Chalkstream Summit, is brainchild of Hampshire MP George Hollingbery, hopes that it can bring pressure to raise awareness among MPs and ministers of the special status of chalkstreams, and to win special protection. It also wants a radical reform of water resources and land use policy so chalkstreams to return to good ecological status, free from damaging environmental impacts. All 100 places have now been taken, and there is a waiting list. The Salmon & Trout Association has just filed an official complaint to the European Commission that the UK government is failing to protect the Hampshire Avon, designated as a special area of conservation under the EU habitats directive.