Wildlife and rivers are under threat after the Environment Agency cut pollution inspections by a third in just four years, an investigation has found.

Unearthed, Greenpeace's investigative unit, discovered that the agency has shed the equivalent of more than 2,500 full time jobs - 20 per cent of its workforce - since 2013, and hugely scaled back environmental checks on farms, industrial sites and water courses.

Last year there were nearly 5,000 fewer annual site inspections by EA officers than in 2014, the year when the agency first started recording data in its current form.

In addition, the investigation found there were close to 500 fewer ‘audits’ - in-depth inspections - per year, more than a hundred fewer checks of pollution monitoring equipment, and 2,000 fewer reviews of data submissions.

Yet recent tests by Greenpeace in the River Otter and River Tale in Devon found 29 different pesticides - some of them banned - and four antibiotics.

“Things are getting worse and compliance is getting worse, particularly in the agricultural sector. We’re getting to a point of lawlessness out there,” said Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive, of The Angling Trust.

“It’s the death of rivers by a thousands cuts. All these little trickles of pollution coming out of fields, slurry stores and farmyards add up to a giant flood of pollution which is killing our rivers slowly but surely.