I am writing in response to the article on sewage in our rivers.

The blue plaque unveiling was to highlight the government’s failure to stop river pollution. 

The plaques said “Harriett Baldwin MP voted to block a law requiring water companies to dump less raw sewage in our waterways and seas, 20th Oct 2021”. 

Lots of people will be angry about the state of our rivers, and it has been under Harriett’s watch that this problem has got to the point of our rivers dying.

In 2021, the year for which we have the most recent records, the outflow in Upton spilled sewage into the Severn for a total of 1,407 hours. This is a disgrace. Up and down the river, the story is repeated.

The costs of keeping our rivers clean doesn’t need to go onto people’s bills. If water companies are rich enough to pay chief exec bonuses and shareholder dividends then they are rich enough to clean up our rivers. And the government has powers to make this happen.

But sewage continues to be dumped in our rivers because of government inaction.
Turning to the mention that Harriett made of a death threat to an MP, nobody should receive these and I hope anyone inciting violence is dealt with by the police. 

It certainly wouldn’t have been from Extinction Rebellion, which seems to have been implied, as they are a non-violent organisation, using peaceful means to highlight government inaction on the climate and nature emergency. 

 

Andy Lyon
Malvern