SGWP Labour Party Says ‘No’ To Water Pollution

The extent of sewage pollution in our waterways is an issue of massive concern to local residents and river users. It is damaging to wildlife and to the interests of many river users including anglers and the Stone Canoe Club, which had to cancel a number of events on health grounds.

In response to this, Stone & District Labour Branch have been monitoring the situation over several months. We met with an environmental expert to understand the true scale and nature of the problem in Stone and surrounds. They painted an alarming picture, revealing that at the last assessment of water quality within the Trent Valley catchment of the River Trent, only one (2.4%) of the Trent Valley water bodies was rated ‘good’ and they all failed on chemical status.

Stone Branch Labour Chairman Bill Lockwood spearheads our work to tackle water pollution. His work has been published in the Staffordshire Newsletter.

The Tory government has let us down

Sewage and river pollution has increased in the last 13 years to the extent that it is now an acute and daily issue for many people. Water companies are in private hands and their shareholders continue to make record profits while there is now not one river in England that meets environmental standards. The Government could choose to regulate water companies, but instead it lets them get away with dodgy contracts and fat bonuses.

Labour MPs voted to end sewage dumping in Britain’s waters – Tory MPs voted to give it the Green Light.

Labour will clean up our waters!

In the next Labour government, we will bring in:

• Automatic fines for sewage dumping
• Mandatory monitoring of all sewage outlets
• Legally binding targets to end 90% of sewage discharges by 2030

The Labour Party puts people before profits.

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Stone Branch Labour Party Chairman Bill Lockwood writes to Environment Agency about pollution in the River Trent

I recently convened a meeting with two officers from Severn Trent Water to raise a number of concerns about sewage pollution of the River Trent in Stone, Staffordshire. Attendees included a Town/Borough/County Councillor as well as a local canoeist who took the attached photographs last summer.

The main issue of concern was the evidence from the photographs as well as a number of river users that the CSO outlet shown in the picture is used to dump sewage straight into the River Trent in order to relieve pressure from a main pipe taking sewage to a pumping station, and the Severn Trent officers present admitted that this happened on at least six occasions in 2023. Local anecdotal evidence would suggest it is probably more often than that however.

As will be seen from the first image attached the CSO relief outlet is immediately opposite Stone and Stafford Canoe Club and spills straight into their canoe slalom course. As a result the Canoe Club has on occasion had to cancel some major regional events on health and safety grounds. A number of river users have reported illness when they have used the river for recreational purposes.

The Severn Trent officers did state that any re-positioning of the pipe could only be up to approx 300 metres from its current position, that this would cost around £400,000 and Severn Trent were unlikely to sanction this. It is of course the case that while re-positioning would take it out of the centre of the canoe club area of main activity, which would be welcomed, it would still be polluting the river slightly further away.

I would like to know if the Environment Agency find this situation acceptable, and whether or not Severn Trent Water has the necessary permits/permissions from the Environment Agency for this outlet to be used in this way. I understand the pipe has been in place for a number of years but that the waste basket shown in the pictures is a relatively recent addition. As can be seen from the pictures attached the basket is largely ineffective in reducing the amount of sewage entering the river.

I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of this issue to the local community and the very high level of concern that such a situation is allowed to occur. A full and detailed response would therefore be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Bill Lockwood

Chair

Stone Branch Labour Party.