You may have seen a lot of stories about sewage in rivers and in the sea recently. A combination of the loss of EU water quality standards, difficulty obtaining treatment chemicals, more extreme weather and disinterest from the water companies means that the UK has the worst open water quality in Europe. Billions of litres of sewage are being routinely discharged into the sea and rivers, including ecologically delicate chalk streams. Even at popular tourist and swimming beaches.
This is a scandal that shames the UK and yet parliament passed up a chance to tackle this problem. During the debate of the Environment Bill on 20th October 2021, MPs had the chance to vote on an amendment that would have placed a duty on water companies to progressively reduce their discharges of sewage. Tory MPs voted the measure down. It was not a robust measure, it did not call for an immediate stop to discharges. But Tory MPs could not bring themselves to take even this step.
So over the weekend of 28th/29th January 2023, XR and other groups concerned about this problem got together and staged protests across the country. Each protest focused on placing a blue plaque to remind people what their MP had done.
Wealden MP Nusrat Ghani was one of those who voted down the amendment. So she got a blue plaque on the footbridge over the River Medway in Forest Row.
Congrats Nus!
