A SHADOW cabinet member visited Hampstead Norreys this week to see how bad pollution is in our waterways.
Steve Reed met with Labour’s candidate in Reading West and Mid Berkshire, Olivia Bailey, so he could test water running through the River Pang.
He is the party’s shadow environment minister, and discovered that the waterway has phosphate levels three times higher than they should be, suggesting the water is highly polluted.
And that was backed by members of Anglers Against Sewage, who said they have been testing the water regularly and had seen the effect it was having on wildlife.
Mr Reed and Ms Bailey also met residents who have been plagued with sewage in their streets, some of whom have opted to sell their home due to the issue.
He said if Labour forms the next government after the July 4 general election, it would put water companies under special measure in a bid to clean up the waterways.
Other measures include:
Give the water regulator powers to block the payment of any bonuses to polluting water bosses until they have cleaned up their filth.
Make water bosses who continue to oversee law-breaking face criminal charges.
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End self-monitoring and force all companies to accept independent monitoring of every single water outlet so companies can no longer cover up illegal sewage dumping.
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Introduce severe and automatic fines that water companies can’t afford to ignore for illegal sewage discharges.
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Strengthen the regulator’s powers and make financial stability and infrastructure investment a priority.
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Ban on the sale, supply and manufacture of plastic wet wipes that clog up our sewers.
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Create nine new National River Walks in England opening up hundreds of miles of our most iconic rivers for families and the public to enjoy.
Mr Reed said: “The Conservatives just folded their arms and looked the other way while water companies pumped a tidal wave of raw sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.
“It is time for change. The next Labour government will put the water companies under special measures and strengthen regulation to force them to clean up their act.”
And Ms Bailey added: “This situation has gone on far too long and if elected on July 4, I will not rest until we clean up every river and stream in Reading West and Mid Berkshire.
“Labour has a plan to get the sewage out of our rivers, and locally I will also campaign for additional legal protections for our precious chalk streams like the Pang.”
Mr Reed’s attention to Berkshire’s water quality is not unique.
In March, ahead of the general election being called, Liberal Democrat candidate Helen Belcher said Environment Agency figures showed that Thames Water had discharged sewage into water ways in the Reading West and Mid Berkshire constituency 16,990 times last year.
She said her party would replace Ofwat with a tougher regulator, and ban bonuses on water companies that have been dumping sewage.
“Residents in Purley, East Ilsley, Hampstead Norreys, Sulhamstead and other affected communities need action now. We need a regulator who will take action, and a ban on bonuses for water company bosses whose firms have pumped sewage into our waterways, damaging our environment, endangering our wildlife. We need to make sure our local communities are protected,” she said.
And last week, Robbie Moore, Minister for Water and Rural Growth, rubbish Lib Dem claims, saying the party was spreading misinformation on the subject.
“We have ensured 100% of storm overflows are now monitored. We have also given Ofwat the powers to ban bonuses of water companies that have committed criminal breaches,” he said.
“Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats’ reckless proposals to eliminate storm overflows could cost households up to almost £7,000 and require pipework to be dug up that is long enough to go two-and-a-half-times around the globe.”
Last November, independent candidate Adrian Abbs said: “A possible solution has been available since being invented in 1913 by German Nobel prize chemist Dr Berguis. It’s called Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) or subcritical water carbonisation. It came back into focus via the Max Plank Institute for Colloidal Science in Potsdam Germany in 2006.
“There are even companies like SoMax who are well down the road of commercialisation. The process deals with the negatives associated with sewage treatment.
“It can deliver sanitised solids that can be useful in the building industry, produce a liquid that in turn can produce biogas as well as some carbon-neutral fertilizer without the PFAS problem.
“Given poo is somewhat of a universal and predictable thing, it can therefore be relied upon as a constant.
“We will give the regulator tough new powers to make law-breaking water bosses face criminal charges and ban the payment of their multi-million pound bonuses until they clean up their toxic filth.”
