Taunton MP urges PM to overhaul water industry due to severe local pollution
Gideon Amos advocates for customer-owned mutual water infrastructure
Gideon Amos, Member of Parliament for Taunton and Wellington, is pressing newly appointed Prime Minister Andy Burnham to make significant reforms to the water industry a priority.
Amos' call comes after new data revealed severe pollution issues in his constituency, with Wessex Water reportedly dumping sewage into local waterways for 4,160 hours across 550 incidents last year.
The Liberal Democrats are pushing the new administration to abandon the privatisation model for the water sector, advocating for a shift to a customer-owned mutual system.
Amos said, “The pollution of our River Tone is a scandal and an insult to local people as well as a scar on our local environment.”
He added that he has been campaigning for Bathing Water Status for the river since 2022 to ensure water companies clean up the damage.
He criticised the Conservative's privatisation model, saying it led to profits going to overseas shareholders and should be discarded entirely.
Amos challenged Burnham by saying, “Andy Burnham has a clear choice – take on the Liberal Democrats' plan to give ownership of our water to customers and the public, or carry on the same dirty business that has sullied our waterways for decades.”
The Liberal Democrats have made several demands to the new Prime Minister, including:
- Putting water companies into special administration and permanently restructuring them as mutuals for customer benefit.
- Restructuring all existing water companies into public-benefit mutuals, moving ownership from private entities to the public.
- Replacing the regulator Ofwat with a more powerful Clean Water Authority to enforce environmental standards strictly.
- Ending the 'Great Sewage Cover-Up' by mandating water companies to report sewage spill volumes, not just their duration.
- Implementing an immediate ban on all executive bonuses in water companies, free from loopholes.
- Ensuring full accountability by recusing Number 10 adviser James Purnell from any decisions on Thames Water due to past associations.
Wessex Water responded, clarifying the sewage spills are licensed storm overflow discharges designed to prevent flooding, and that it does not discharge sewage into the River Tone or elsewhere.
A representative from Wessex Water added, “Rivers in rural catchments will always have bacteria in them... but we want to help people make an informed choice by delivering real-time water quality information using AI at popular coastal and inland sites.”
In response to sewage pollution issues, Paddle-Out Protests were held at over 50 locations across the UK by concerned citizens who have decided enough is enough.