"It’s absolutely unacceptable for anyone to be profiting from these companies while they continue to pollute our rivers and coastal waters on such a massive scale. It’s time to take them back into public ownership.”
Cornwall Green Party has reacted strongly to the latest incident of serious sewage pollution, at St Agnes.
Karen La Borde, a Truro City Councillor and the Green Party’s parliamentary candidate for Truro and Falmouth, said: “Yesterday’s disgusting outpour of effluent at St Agnes is the latest of many serious pollution incidents in the past few months all around Cornwall’s coastline.
“Cherilyn Mackrory MP has echoed South West Water’s claim that this was mostly storm water, but local surfers report that there was plenty of all too recognisable human excrement in the mix. This is a real danger to human health, as well as harming the marine environment and Cornwall’s reputation as a holiday destination.
“Pennon Group, which owns South West Water, made a profit of nearly £2 billion in 2020-21. It and the other privatised water companies have returned tens of billions of pounds to their shareholders over the past few years and their executives are earning extremely large salaries.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable for anyone to be profiting from these companies while they continue to pollute our rivers and coastal waters on such a massive scale.
“The Green Party would like to see these companies taken back into public ownership and the money that’s currently paid out to shareholders used to modernise infrastructure and put an end to this pollution – and to the huge waste of water through leaks in ageing pipes.”
In response to the claim that much of the deep brown outflow at St Agnes was soil run-off, Ms La Borde said: “It’s no doubt true that this effluent included a lot of topsoil as well as sewage. But soil erosion is also an extremely serious problem, and what does that say about our approach to sustainable drainage systems? St Agnes has seen a lot of development recently, and planning regulations need to be much stricter to make sure that any new development does not lead to increased run-off.”
Ms La Borde also drew attention to the voting records of Cornwall’s MPs on sewage disposal: “At the next election, I hope people will remember that five of Cornwall’s Conservative MPs – Cherilyn Mackrory, Steve Double, George Eustice, Scott Mann and Sheryll Murray – all voted against taking strong action to compel water companies to stop pumping raw sewage into our rivers and onto our beaches.
“It’s not just the water companies – it’s high time to hold these MPs accountable for the damage they are continuing to do to our natural environment.”