One of the worst things to do in politics is to pledge to do something and then do the exact opposite. Our current Conservative MP for Somerton and Frome is being accused of doing just that after he helped the Government defeat a proposed legal duty on water companies to end sewage pollution, despite previously promising to support such a law.

On 20th October 2021, MPs considered several House of Lords’ amendments to the Environment Bill, including amendment 45 which amongst other things would have imposed a legal duty on water companies to ‘take all reasonable steps to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged from storm overflows’ and to ‘demonstrate improvements in the sewerage systems and progressive reductions in the harm caused by untreated sewage discharges’. This would have put into effect the core, primary clause of Philip Dunne MP’s Sewage (Inland Waters) Bill which our MP pledged to support on 14^th January, after meeting campaigners from the Friends of the River Frome and listening to their concerns (see here).

Sewage pollution threatens our health and environment. Swimming in sewage-polluted water risks gastroenteritis, ear, skin, nose and throat infections, hepatitis and E-coli. There are over 21,000 combined sewer overflows in England and Wales, and 400,000 discharges last year. Only 14% of our rivers meet good ecological standards, and the UK has a worse record for bathing water quality than every EU country. So action is clearly needed.

When the private members bill was not progressed due to time limits and Covid, Government Ministers agreed to include some additional measures in the Environment Bill to reduce sewage pollution, including new requirements for more targets, plans, monitoring and reporting. This is moving in the right direction, but too slowly and it is not enough. Ending sewage pollution from our sewerage system will take time, money and planning, but a new legal duty would make the privatised water industry treat the issue much more seriously, requiring them to take reasonable and practical action to progressively eliminate sewage pollution.

In the debate (you can read it in Hansard here, and watch it on Parliament TV here, starting from 5.27pm) our MP remained silent, but several Conservative, Labour, Green and Lib Dem MPs argued strongly for a legal duty. Tim Farron talked of unacceptable sewage pollution in his Lake District constituency, “I don’t want reports, I want action!”. But Government Ministers argued it was ‘unnecessary’ given the half-measures they were agreeing to (the more targets, plans, monitoring and reporting), and told their MPs to vote down the legal duty. Most did (see here), including the MP for Somerton & Frome, but 22 Tory MPs voted with the opposition. The Government has since been accused of looking after water companies’ profits rather than the nation’s water quality.

Unlike many of our rivers, it is crystal clear that our Conservative MP has voted to stop water companies having a legal duty to stop polluting British rivers and coasts with sewage, despite clearly promising that he would support such a law. He needs to apologise to the Friends of the River Frome and everyone else who wants to end sewage pollution.

What can you do? Please support the campaigns to end sewage pollution by Surfers Against Sewage, the Rivers Trust, the Friends of the River Frome and others. As the issue is likely to come back to the Commons again shortly (see here), please politely write to your MP and let him know what you think – he may have another chance to do the right thing and keep his promise next time.

Adam Boyden, Damon Hooton, Richard Pinnock, Janine Nash, Drew Gardner, Helen Sprawson-White and Barry O’Leary, Mendip District Councillors (Liberal Democrats)

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