During last week’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Questions in the House of Commons, Tom Randall MP asked the Environment Minister for an update on steps the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs is taking to require water companies to help reduce water pollution and unsatisfactory overflows
Gedling’s Conservative Member of Parliament, Tom Randall said “The Liberal Democrats pretend that we can fix storm overflows in 48 hours and Labour has an undeliverable sewage plan, so it is unsurprising that sewage is discharged more often in socialist-run Wales.”
Tom went on to ask the Environment Minister to confirm that it is only the Conservatives’ plan for water that is credible, costed and comprehensive.
In response to Tom Randall MP, the Environment Minister said: “No Government in history have taken a more comprehensive approach to tackling water pollution. This Conservative Government are delivering more investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement to tackle every source of water pollution. Under our storm overflows discharge reduction plan, £60 billion is targeted at cleaning up storm sewage overflows. Thanks to our monitoring, we know what is happening and we are able to take action. Let me remind Members that there was virtually no monitoring under the Labour Government. This Government are setting the record straight.
“We are the only party with a costed, credible plan to tackle this issue, and we uncovered it. If Labour had a plan, it would be using it in Wales. We have just heard how serious the illegal sewage discharges are in Wales. We have discovered that not only has Natural Resources Wales not carried out any enforcement, but it has not issued any fines at all on this subject—nothing. And the Liberals do not have any plans.”
Speaking after Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Questions, Tom said: “Thanks to plans that were introduced by this Conservative Government and that I voted in favour of, by 2025 water companies will have reduced overflows discharges from 2020 levels by around 25% and by 2050 no storm overflows will be permitted to operate outside of unusually heavy rainfall (average of 10 rainfall events per year).
“While the Conservative Government's plan for water will reduce the use of storm overflow discharges, information revealed today show that Labour-run Wales has been illegally spilling untreated sewage at dozens of treatment plants for years, including into an environmentally protected area near a rare dolphin habitat for at least a decade. We must not let Labour do the same across the rest of the UK.”
