- Water company fines: Pointless whilst it remains legal to dump sewage into swimming waters
- Braverman pushes botched Rwanda scheme while queues pile up in Dover
Water company fines: Pointless whilst it remains legal to dump sewage into swimming waters
Responding to the Government re-announcing they will change the fine structure on water companies, Liberal Democrat Environment spokesperson Tim Farron said:
This is pointless whilst it remains legal for water companies to dump sewage into swimming waters. It is a national scandal that water companies are allowed to pump sewage into our rivers and coastlines all because Ministers refuse to get tough with them.
Conservative MPs have blocked taking tougher action on water companies, and these new half-baked plans from Ministers will do nothing to deter water companies from their polluting actions.
Thérèse Coffey must now resign. She has had months in post with nothing but hot air and empty rhetoric. Under Coffey’s plan, sewage will be pumped into our rivers for decades to come. Shamefully, the Environment Secretary has refused to ban water companies rewarding themselves with multi-million pound bonuses. It is time we had an Environment Secretary who actually cared about the environment.
Braverman pushes botched Rwanda scheme while queues pile up in Dover
Responding to Suella Braverman discussing her Rwanda plans and the border queues in Dover, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said:
Suella Braverman’s admission that her botched Rwanda scheme is on hold shows just how unworkable it is.
The Home Office continues to push expensive, ineffective schemes that will do nothing to tackle the cause of small boat crossings, or address the asylum backlog created by years of Conservative incompetence.
All these vanity projects do is distract from this Conservative Government’s shambolic mismanagement of our borders, as we are currently witnessing in Dover.
Despite these huge queues to cross over to Europe becoming all too commonplace, Suella Braverman is so wildly out of touch she cannot even own up to the problem.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Another myth that should die: The Victorians covered table legs because they thought were indecent
Graphics and AV tools for solo consultants
Weekly Road Report - West End Ward #dundeewestend
Mick Taylor
Alex Macfie
Barry Smith
Steve Trevethan
Tim Rogers
6 Comments
“Water company fines: Pointless whilst it remains legal to dump sewage into swimming waters”.
The nettle of nationalising the water companies and imposing strict regulations needs to be grasped.
@ David Raw: I fully agree. If raw sewage is being pumped into swimming waters, how long is it going to be before someone is poisoned by the noxious mixture of chemicals.
The most exasperating element of this charade is that the CEOs of water companies then get awarded huge bonuses for “performance”.
DAVID RAW is right -take the water companies into accountable public ownership – should be LIBERAL DEMOCRAT policy ……Why isn’t it ?!?
May I respectfully suggest that before you start down a path on how to address a problem, like legal dumping of sewage into the water environment (including swimming waters), one considers what exactly you are trying to achieve. I heard Ed Davey today on Radio 4 when he seemed to be advocating returning responsibility for rivers and sewer systems back to local authorities.
If you want to address the problems of the water cycle during a confidently worsening climate crisis, in a way that is societally most acceptable while maximising cost effectiveness, then you might want to consider the fundamental building blocks that are applicable. For example, river catchments cover our land and carry flows from each river source through to the sea. Every single aspect of river catchment related performance is dependent on the river flows in, through and even under the river catchment. River catchments do not follow local authority or even national boundaries.
Professor Sir Dieter Helm wrote a 31-March-2023 article “Cleaning up the sorry state of our rivers is not rocket science”, see https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cleaning-up-the-sorry-state-of-our-rivers-is-not-rocket-science-clean-it-up-3tkbckhr9 where he generally summarises the situation well. However, he didn’t acknowledge the central need to understand river flows as part of a truly integrated approach to cost effectively addressing all water cycle problems. Also, I would add that the necessary direction of travel could yet include a bit of rocket type science, with a growing need for real-time monitoring and active control, plus even potentially Artificial Intelligence systems.
Nationalisation may yet be required. Local government inputs will be essential but they should not be leading or accountable for the best or most cost-effective way forward, societally. We should think integrated river catchment management and ensure that the accountable body is sufficiently and confidently funded.
Meanwhile – on small boat crossings..
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/08/home-office-admits-no-evidence-to-support-key-claim-on-small-boat-crossings
“The Home Office has admitted it has no evidence to back up one of the key justifications for its crackdown on small boat crossings.
As home secretary, Priti Patel, the Tory architect of attempts to tackle Channel crossings, told parliament in 2021 that “70% of individuals on small boats are single men who are effectively economic migrants”.
…..
However, when asked to respond to a Freedom of Information request for evidence to support Patel’s claim, the Home Office admitted it had none….”