Here’s what South West Water’s WaterFit Live map looked like on the morning of April 20th:
The combined sewer overflow activation at Portreath finished in the early hours of the morning:
That was followed by a sewage “spill” at Fowey on April 22nd:
Since then we’ve had a few dry days. However, after an all too brief interlude there’s been a bit of rain over the last two days. It therefore comes as no surprise to impart the news that all of a sudden there are several orange pushpins on this afternoon’s WaterFit Live map. revealing plenty of sewage pollution along the south coasts of Devon and Cornwall once again:
The debate was opened by Simon Jupp MP as follows:
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the performance of South West Water.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Henderson. I am delighted to have secured this important debate, one year on from another debate that I secured on the performance of South West Water. It is another opportunity to hold South West Water to the highest possible standards in the House.
Last year, I described the performance of our water company and its historic lack of investment as “shameful”, and many of my constituents shared my point of view. This year, I want to focus my speech on the facts facing my constituency of East Devon. The public want to see evidence of improvement and delivery of the promised investment, and they want South West Water to clean up its act and our water. South West Water must deliver better services for our constituents, improve our bathing waters, and protect our natural environment. Not doing so puts the vibrancy of our coastal communities under threat.
More on all that later. However, we’re going to start our discussion with the speech given by the Member of Parliament for North Devon, Selaine Saxby. Here is a recording of her presentation:
It’s the day after February 28th, and the previous month’s sewage pollution article is overflowing with almost continuous news of combined sewer overflow activations around the coast of Devon and Cornwall. I’ve taken the liberty of starting this article a day early, hoping rather than expecting that March will be a bit quieter.
After yet more rain overnight, here is this morning’s Surfers Against Sewage map of pollution around our coasts:
Starting with the local surfing beaches, sewage pollution has been occurring this morning at Widemouth Bay:
and the adjacent Trevone and Harlyn Bays, amongst numerous other places across Cornwall:
Given the recent nationwide opinion polls I cannot help but think that some Conservative Members of Parliament in South West England must be fearing for their seats: https://twitter.com/ElectsWorld/status/1755968592523247803 Call me…
At least we've endured no named storms for a few days! However, this evening we have experienced a band of rain crossing the West Country: Needless to say when I…
I posed a (rather rhetorical) question to our regular reader(s) on XTwitter yesterday, and the answer arrived in next to no time: https://twitter.com/west_devon_info/status/1748853663987028292 This evening Storm Isha is unleashing her…
I sent a letter to the editor of the North Devon Gazette yesterday. I reproduce it below, but with the addition of some graphics and hyperlinks. Dear Editor, As an…
It's Christmas Eve and we've received Xmas greetings from South West Water. As well as a revised water bill for a quarter of the amount of the original one, comes…
Following the severe storms last weekend a smaller storm is crossing the West Country this morning. Here's the Met Office forecast for today's accumulated rainfall by midday: That shows around…
It's been raining a lot recently here in the West Country. What's more the Met Office are forecasting plenty more: https://twitter.com/metoffice/status/1733146977196503218 Here is the current Surfers Against Sewage sewage pollution…