Taunton and Wellington MP joins call for action over sewage

The MP for Taunton and Wellington, Gideon Amos, is backing calls for the scrapping of water regulator Ofwat after shocking new figures on the discharge of sewage were revealed.

Last year, Wessex Water pumped 404,880 hours-worth of sewage into waterways, according to new data published on Thursday.

Mr Amos said: “Here in Taunton and Wellington, water quality has been revealed as poor by the Environment Agency and people are rightly appalled at what’s happening to the Tone, while facing sky-high water bills.

“We want to see these firms turned into public benefit companies, with duties to put cleaning up pollution before profit - but we need a complete system change if we are going to really help clean up our waters.

“Recent governments have failed to stop the pollution, and stood by as profits have been maximised, dividends sent overseas and millions paid out in bonuses.

“It’s time to get tough, so the government also needs to act now by putting in place a new regulator that will genuinely protect British rivers and seas from being pumped with disgusting sewage. It’s time for Ofwat to go.

“I and the Liberal Democrats will continue to work on improving the River Tone and all our waterways.

“Only a few of us would take a dip in our river right now, but all of us want to see an end to the pollution being pumped into it.”

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.