A cover up for water company neglect in The Times today

Letter to the Editor of The Times in response to an ill informed article about the Sewage Clean Up at Ilkley. You can read the article here

Today’s article failed to address the fact that Bathing Status was the only vehicle available to get Yorkshire Water to stop dumping untreated sewage in our river, for 1/3rd of the days of the year. This excessive pollution was allowed by the regulators and the government at the time, and it is damaging our river for wildlife and people.  The scheme at Ilkley stops this excessive pollution, reducing the raw sewage discharges from hundreds to 10 annually. That will have a real benefit for the wildlife in our river.

I am the chair of the Ilkley Clean River Group with hundreds of supporters, not a lone campaigner as depicted in the article. Our aim is to stop untreated sewage pollution that is damaging our river for people and wildlife, and make Yorkshire water comply with the law, only dumping raw sewage in our river in exceptional circumstances. The campaign was not, and is not about making rivers swimmable, but to ensure that we end pollution for profit, and secure clean rivers, lakes and seas across the country. Of course we campaigned locally to begin with – as I explained to the author, we thought it was a local problem. We had no idea at the time that this was a national issue. But as we uncovered the shocking extent of water company negligence we stepped up, working with other campaign groups in the Sewage Campaign Network, the only grassroots campaign collaboration in the country, and this year we set up The People’s Commission on the Water Sector to fill the gaps in the government’s own independent commission – calling for a Cleaner, Fairer and Cheaper water system. Painting the picture of myself as a lone local campaigner mis represents the work we do here in Ilkley to make sure our bills nationally pay for clean waterways, and does not line the pockets of so called investors.

The quote from within Yorkshire Water that the funding would be better spent elsewhere was left unchallenged in the article. Alan Smith whose company contracts to the water industry accuses myself and the group of “over-zealous, well-connected lobbying” that will cost the ‘hapless billpayer’. It is this ‘over zealous’ campaigning that has led to sewage pollution and the devastating impact on our environment, being centre stage politically. As for ‘well-connected’ our connection was our local MP at the time. This pot-shot at campaigners is a smokescreen for the real story which is that Yorkshire Water’s performance is appalling. It has neglected its assets to the extent that it Yorkshire Water currently leaks 260m litres of water a day from its mismanaged and neglected crumbling pipes;  sewer ‘rehabilitation’ rate is at 0.08% way below the national average; 85% of its untreated sewage discharges are because it doesn’t have the infrastructure capacity to cope with the sewage entering the network; it has been penalised by Ofwat for mismanagement of its treatment works and downgraded by the Environment Agency for its ‘unacceptable and disappointing record’. Despite the desperate need to maintain the water system, Yorkshire Water under spent by 31% on its capital programme in the last period.

That is the real problem, and it is shocking that it has taken years of public campaigning to get the regulators and government to begin to hold water companies to account.

Let’s be clear, funding the clean up of the Ilkley Sewage works, does not stop Yorkshire Water doing its job maintaining the whole of its infrastructure, and neither should the public pay – we have already paid through years of bills syphoned off for excess dividends, interest on their loans and extortionate executive salaries whilst failing to use our money as its should have been used – to maintain their assets and protect our waterways.

Kind regards