Dear Craig,
Lords’ amendment to the Environment Bill
As one of your constituents I sincerely hope you will be voting for the Lord’s amendment to the Environment Bill this afternoon and not the amendment proposed by your government. It is important to place a legal duty on sewerage undertakers to take reasonable steps to make sure raw sewerage is not discharged from storm overflows into inland and coastal waters.
As you know I live beside Colden Water and regularly swim and play with my grandchildren in the river. I am therefore particularly concerned that the combined sewer overflow at Jack Bridge has discharged raw sewerage into Colden Water for a total of seventy-two hours in the past reporting period. Additionally, as our house has flooded in the past it is totally unacceptable that as well as cleaning up after the effects of flood water that this situation should be exacerbated by the flood water being contaminated by raw sewerage. This is situation is intolerable, but minor compared to other incidents of raw sewerage being discharged into rivers in Calderdale and elsewhere in the country.
As you know, I am also Chair of Slow the Flow, and we would like you to help us make the case to water companies and sewerage undertakers to use natural flood management, such as attenuation basins, to reduce the impact of storm surges into combined sewers which cause the problem of raw sewerage discharges. By using natural flood management techniques water companies can both reduce the cost of stopping raw sewerage discharges into inland and coastal waters as well as providing flood protection to communities that regularly suffer such events.
Yours truly,
Bede Mullen