Helena Dollimore, the prospective Labour parliamentary candidate for Hastings and Rye, joined campaigners holding a demonstration last Friday in protest over sewage being discharged into the sea along the south coast by Southern Water.
Members of Clean Water Action carrying red flags and placards declared “Enough is enough” as a huge turnout of supporters gathered at Azur Beach in St. Leonards. The protest followed several recent sewage releases along the south coast that led to beaches at Bexhill and Normans Bay being closed off. People were also warned not to swim in the water at Seaford in case of sewage washing up on the beach following heavy rain.
On her social media pages, Ms. Dollimore said: “There was a huge turnout for this protest against Southern Water dumping sewage in our sea. This Conservative government has been letting them get away with it for the last twelve years. On this sewage scandal and the cost of living crisis, the Tories are asleep at the wheel.”
A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “We’re very sorry about the failure at our Galley Hill site which caused a pollution incident last week. Protecting the environment is a key priority for us and cutting pollution incidents is one crucial task.”
In an attempt to tackle water company sewage pollution, the government is launching the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan this week, which hopes to address how water companies tackle the number of discharges of untreated sewage.
Commenting on the plan, Sally-Ann Hart, MP for Hastings and Rye, said: “This plan will mean water companies will face strict targets and must completely eliminate the harm any sewage discharge causes to the environment. The current use of sewage overflows is completely unacceptable and I will continue to push Southern Water to tackle them as quickly as possible.”
Image Credits: Helena Dollimore , ClearWater Action .
Where is this Azur beach? Never heard of it
Sally Ann Hart once again being incredibly disingenuous (that’s the kindest way of putting it!). She claims to have voted for a Bill outlawing the discharge of sewage into the sea, but in fact the Tories voted against those Labour proposals and instead the Tories voted for their own amendment to the Bill which REMOVED the text requiring water companies to “take all reasonable steps to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged from storm overflows” and to “demonstrate improvements in the sewerage system”. THAT is what Ms Hart voted for: a Bill amended in such a way that the water companies are not obliged to make any specific improvements at all! Don’t believe her when she parrots the line that she voted for “tough regulations” because she did not.
Amy B, thank you for defending the Truth! Yes we want clean water and action taken. Keep up the good work. Tourists and residents in Hastings and Rye need to be assured that their drinking water is safe. Get yourself on to Hastings Council!. Best wishes, Aoife Coleman ( Miss )
It would appear that, under the proposal which Ms Hart championed, the water companies have been given an incredible generous time-scale indeed in which to upgrade their infrastructure and eliminate all sewage discharges. Can we really afford two more decades of sewage in our water?
Southern water have apologised AGAIN. Protecting the environment should not be in the hands of the shareholder, it’s not enough to keep apologising and re-offending, although it does have a ring of the present government’s example.
To answer Marilyn: Azur beach is adjacent to Azur Pavilion on St Leonards sea front near Royal Victoria Hotel
Back in the late 50’s early 60’s Camber was a massive open sewer, we would swim in it but always kept an eye on what was floating past.
Our likely next Prime Minister, Liz Truss, was responsible for cutting millions of pounds of funding earmarked for tackling water pollution during her time as environment secretary.
Truss, who was in charge at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) between 2014 and 2016, oversaw “efficiency” plans set out in the 2015 spending review to reduce Environment Agency funding by £235m.
This included a £24m cut from a government grant for environmental protection, including surveillance of water companies to prevent the dumping of raw sewage, between 2014-15 and 2016-17, according to the National Audit Office.
It represents almost a quarter of the funding cut from this area between 2010, when the grant stood at £120m, and 2020, by which time it had fallen to £40m.