Last week, I met with South West Water/Pennon Group to discuss a number of ongoing issues. The reality is that there are clearly a number of areas where South West Water can/should be doing far better than they currently are:
- Whilst welcoming their work to reduce storm overflows + infrastructure, I made it clear that their goals need to be more ambitious to ensure that sewage overflows are a reduced as much as possible.
- Pennon have a 2050 plan (focusing on climate change, drainage and waste management). Again, I stated that this was too slow and that infrastructure needs improving and replacing as soon as possible.
- 70% of issues are caused primarily by things people put into the network (fat/wet wipes etc.). Whilst SWW need to do their job (much better), we all also need to be helping by not putting items into the system that absolutely shouldn’t be there.
- Given the scale of the work required, I also made it clear to SWW that the burden should absolutely not be placed entirely on bill payers and should be funded through other means.
On the topic of sewage, it’s also important to clarify what actually happened with the Duke of Wellington’s amendment in October 2021. Nobody voted to ‘allow the dumping of sewage’ and any suggestion otherwise is simply misleading, as the articles below outline:
https://www.annemariemorris.co.uk/news/comment-lords-amendment-45-environment-bill-sewage
https://fullfact.org/environment/murky-claims-about-sewage-bill-fact-checked/
As ever, if any constituents want to discuss this, or any other matter, please do get in touch to arrange an in-person or virtual surgery slot. This can be done by either calling 01626368277 or emailing annemarie.morris.mp@parliament.uk