Once again, I am focussing this column on sewage discharge into our coast. England has a combined sewage system made up of hundreds of thousands of miles, built by the Victorians. This means that clean rainwater and waste from toilets, bathrooms and kitchens is conveyed in the same pipe to the treatment works. During heavy rainfall, the capacity of these pipes can be exceeded, which means inundation of sewage works and backing up which could flood homes and premises unless it can spill elsewhere. To prevent this, we have 22,000 combined sewer overflows to discharge the excess into our waterways and seas. Many of these were used last week, resulting in beach closures across Sussex. I want these overflows removed. It’s disgusting to have sewage released into our waters.
The issue chiefly impacting Bexhill was not from a storm overflow but a failure of the Galley Hill pumping station. As I like to start by establishing the facts before venting erroneous opinions and taking incorrect action, I have asked the Chief Executives of Southern Water and the Environment Agency for details and I am meeting them to discuss. I’ve invited our District and County Council, who have responsibility on beaches and for public health, to join me. With more detail coming to light, including the fact that this was a power transformer failure, I have now asked a series of additional questions so we can get all the facts as to what happened, why it happened and what actions were taken to mitigate public health risks. I’m publishing these questions, and the explanations, on my website. I will look to ensure that those who have the responsibility are held to account and fixes are delivered. This is not just an issue impacting the environment and our community; many livelihoods are based on the cleanliness and operation of our beaches.
Readers of this column may recall, back in 2021, me writing about how I took the difficult decision to vote against my own Government and demand more urgency to end sewage discharges. Voting against one's own Government does not come without consequences but I did so because I felt that the constituency came first and that we needed a stronger statutory duty on sewage organisations to eradicate the practice of storm discharge into waterways and the sea. To be fair to the Government, and my colleagues who voted with it, the proposed legislation was putting a level of action in place for the first time in decades of Government failure on the issue. I felt it did not go far enough.
Despite being on the losing side of this vote, I was pleased when the Government had a rethink some days later and decided to put a similar amendment into the Environment Bill. This duty is now enshrined in law and there is a requirement on Government to publish the targets and milestones by 1 September. Last Saturday, on Radio 4, I urged the Government to make these meaningful and to ensure that there were sanctions on water authorities for a failure to deliver. I also acknowledged, with so many miles of commingled sewage and water pipes, and the 22,000 outflows, that this would have a significant cost. I do believe that we must meet the challenge because we are custodians of the environment and the changes in weather patterns makes the use of storm overflows even more significant in future years.
There has been a lot of vitriol written about Conservative MPs who voted for the Government’s first proposal having voted to discharge sewage into the sea. This is not the case. They were actually voting to toughen up the existing regime. I didn’t feel that proposal was tough enough, so I voted with the opposition for the amendment which, with slightly differing language, eventually made it to the statute book. That amendment came from the House of Lords, not from the opposition parties. It also doesn’t mean that the 20 Conservative MPs (of which I was one) and the opposition MPs were voting to eradicate sewage discharges (as some are now attempting to claim). It’s more correct to say that we wanted more immediate progress. It saddens me that people can play erroneous politics with what is, in reality, a complex and costly problem.
I am focussed and committed to working together with all of the organisations who can play a part in ending this disgusting practice and better protect our precious waterways and seas.
