Save Our Swale have say on Independent Water Commission

Revealing the commission, Environment Secretary Steve Reed said an independent review of the water industry is an opportunity “to clean up our water once and for all”

In a statement to the Commons on Wednesday, Mr Reed said: “We are launching an independent commission, together with the Welsh Government, which will lead the biggest review of the water industry since privatisation 35 years ago.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed (Image: Peter Byrne/PA) “The commission will ensure we have the robust regulatory framework we need to attract the significant investment required to clean up our waterways, build new infrastructure to address water scarcity and restore public confidence in the sector."

He went on to say: “This is our opportunity to make sure our children and their children have the chance to create memories that will last a lifetime, to splash about at the seaside, to row on our rivers, or enjoy a picnic by the lakeshore.

Despite the announcement of the Independent Water Commission, the Save Our Swale group, who have been campaigning for the water industry to 'clean up its act' and stop pollution in rivers and watercourses, have called on the government to 'not delay what we already know'.

Reacting to the news of the commission, the campaign group claimed that it's 'quite simple' to deal with the water industry problems - alleging that no more raw sewage dumped into our rivers and seas, decombining the sewers, and modernising our sewage treatment works would solve the problem.

Pollution in the river (Image: PA MEDIA) A spokesperson for Save Our Swale said: "Root and branch reform of profiteering water companies is what is required, not tinkering around with a privatised system that has always put profits before people.

"The government says it would be too expensive to re-nationalise the water industry and based this decision on a 2018 analysis commissioned by three water companies. Sir Dieter Helm, a leading economist, called the analysis 'economically illiterate'."

According to the environmental group, which has been monitoring water quality for over a year, 73 per cent of samples taken along the Swale at Richmond and Brompton exceeded what is regarded as a 'safe' level of pathogenic coliforms.

The highest coliform count recorded by the group on the Swale was taken on August 5 this year from the outflow pipe of Richmond Sewage Treatment Works.

River Swale (Image: NORTHERN ECHO) On this occasion, the group said that the reading on August 5 was 760,000 coliforms per 100 ml of water; a large figure compared to the 1,000 coliforms per 100 ml of water that needs to be recorded for water to be regarded as 'good'.

The spokesperson for Save Our Swale added: "The River Swale needs action now, not a water commission that is just going to tell us what we already know sometime in 2025."

Shadow Environment Minister Robbie Moore (Image: PARLIAMENT) The campaign group weren't the only one to criticise the government's plans for the Independent Water Commission, as Shadow Environment Minister Robbie Moore accused the Government of using the proposed independent commission to “delay difficult decision”.

“This is a sign of hesitation. It’s a way to delay the difficult decisions and buy themselves more time,” Mr Moore told the Commons.

He added that the Government “could take real action right now, by progressing plans for an automatic ban on water company bosses’ bonuses when offences take place, as put forward by the last Conservative administration”.

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Mr Moore also asked: “Could the Secretary of State outline exactly when these positive impacts will take place? Because from my calculations, it’s not going to be until 2029 at the earliest.”

Environment Secretary Steve Reed replied: “I took action seven days after the general election. I brought the water chief execs into my office, and we agreed that money earmarked for investment would be ringfenced, so it can’t be diverted to pay multi-million-pound bonuses to water chief execs who are overseeing failure in the water sector, as they were able to on his watch.

“This commission will reset the sector they broke and clean up the water they polluted, and it will report to this Government in June and inform subsequent legislation.”