Sewage dumping - this is a scandal on the Conservatives’ watch

 “The statistics are appalling. Water companies are focussing on shareholder dividends and executives’ bonuses, rather than doing the job they are meant to be doing, which is supplying clean water and safely disposing of waste water and sewage,” says Paul Ray, Liberal Democrat candidate for Lichfield, Burntwood, and the villages.

Paul Ray points to the recent flooding of parts of Lichfield’s Beacon Park with sewage, as the result of antiquated infrastructure which should have been replaced many years ago. But all over the country, streams, rivers, beaches and estuaries are being flooded with sewage, destroying the landscape, endangering wildlife, and posing a serious health risk to us all. And the numbers increase year on year at a terrifying rate.

“I believed that our MP, Michael Fabricant, in his role as the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Association for the Waterways, would use his position to condemn the situation and to take active steps to prevent it happening again. But I was hoping for too much; and worse I certainly wasn’t expecting a defence of these companies by him.”

The Liberal Democrats would ban bonuses for bosses of water companies who flout the law in this way, would replace OFWAT with a new regulatory body with more enforcement powers, and would transform the existing water companies into public benefit companies.

“What we would not do,” says Paul Ray, “is sit on our hands and watch as our waterways are poisoned, our beaches become unsafe, and private companies expect the customers – that’s you and me – to pay more for their water in order to do the jobs which should have been tackled years ago. We’ve had too much of this, and it needs to stop.”

Our manifesto at https://www.libdems.org.uk/manifesto/ has full details of our fair deal for the environment, which includes the measures above, as well as our commonsense and practical plans for our future.

Published and promoted by Hugh Warner on behalf of Paul Ray (Liberal Democrats) all at 25 Christ Church Lane, Lichfield WS13 8BA