Extinction Rebellion ‘blue plaques’ in Salisbury call out MP for river pollution
The group's been taking part in nationwide action
Extinction Rebellion Salisbury have unveiled satirical blue plaques in the city as part of a national campaign by the organisation.
The group says the plaques are ‘drawing the public’s attention’ to raw sewage being dumped in our waterways and seas.
Multiple plaques were put up in Salisbury reading ‘John Glen MP voted to dump raw sewage into local rivers. 20 October 2021’, refering to rejected amendments to the Environment Act, 2021.
Graham Wise, a spokesperson for XR Salisbury said:
“The protest on Saturday (28th January) was designed to highlight to the public that the problem of sewage getting into our rivers, waterways and the ocean is still with us. In fact, it's getting worse.
“We’ve had a number of blue plaques made up that have been placed around the waterways of the country, drawing the publics attention to the fact that in recent times a number of our MPs have voted against amendments to the Environment Act, which would have placed a legal duty in the water companies and on parliament to make sure this problem is eradicated once and for all.”
Conservative MP for Salisbury John Glen didn’t back an amendment to the Environment Act which would have put a legal duty on water firms to reduce raw sewage discharges.
Mr Wise added:
“It just feels like this problem isn’t going away. And I think the public sentiment from what we’ve seen in response to the actions over the weekend nationwide is that the majority of the public appears to feel exactly the same way.”
In response to these plaques Mr Glen said:
“My vote has been widely misrepresented. As I explained at the time, an instant ban on sewage entering rivers by any means was impossible to achieve and therefore nonsensical to vote for.
“The total upgrade of our sewers to make them impervious to rain is a project that will take several decades to complete.
“If, in the meantime, heavy rain caused any part of the system to flood, the alternative to managed discharges would be to allow sewage to rise up through manhole covers and into our streets and homes, from whence it would be impossible to prevent it from contaminating groundwater and reaching our waterways anyway.
“I could not vote for a public health catastrophe that would also have failed to achieve the aim of protecting rivers.
“But ministers have made it crystal clear to water companies that the current number of sewage discharges is utterly unacceptable.
“Companies cannot continue discharging sewage as a sticking plaster for inadequate maintenance of the system. Tackling storm overflows is a top priority to protect both public health and the environment. To that end, the government set out plans to revolutionise how water companies operate, which I was delighted to vote for.
“They face strict legal limits on when they can use storm overflows and must take responsibility for completely eliminating any harm caused to the environment.”