Trafford councillors furious over raw discharges into the River Mersey are calling on the government to take action and ensure that polluters "pay." A resolution passed at the authority’s full council meeting has urged Parliament to ensure that the water companies ‘operate in the interests of the public, not shareholders’.
They also want ‘meaningful provision for the monitoring of water quality, a meaningful strategy published with targets for the reduction of sewage discharges and financial penalties for breaches'. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features. The River Mersey flows through the Longford ward of councillor Sarah Haughey.
She told the meeting: “In Stretford and Urmston last year there were 24 sites polluted, 1,095 sewage dumps over a period of time amounting to 8.62 months.” She said that since water was privatised in 1991 water companies ‘have paid a staggering £50bn in dividends to their shareholders’. “This country is awash with Tory government-sanctioned filthy raw sewage,” said Coun Haughey. "I love these green lungs and use them daily, but the stench and filth deposited is sickening.
And the smoking gun is flushable wipes which decorate my ward after every such discharge." Proposing the motion Coun Barry Winstanley said: “Our quality of life is being treated with utter contempt.