Fresh wave of sewage pollution hits Britain’s beaches

21 comments
  1. Since this has been happening basically forever this is obviously an energy crisis distraction technique, but I’ll bite.

    This is equally the local councils doing, they grant consent to spill when the storm tanks reach a certain level and only fine if they spill before this point. Why?

    Well because of NIMBY as always, the storm tanks are incredibly cheap to build compared to the cost of replacing combined sewer overflow entirely, but the council will sooner approve a spill consent than an extra stormtank or two because people complain.

    If you want the water company to replace combined sewer systems built when it was under public ownership and don’t want water bills to triple along with energy then by all.means nationalise, but you’re still paying for it from your taxes when all’s said and done.

    Hopefully we can get rid of NIMBY and replace some systems, build some huge storm tanks across the country, maybe even store it at height to help with energy storage, and even more importantly build nuclear to help the energy of future generations, which is what this news is really there to distract you from.

  2. Water companies have failed in their basic duty in treating water. Energy producing companies are also failing in their basic duty in providing us affordable energy. Train companies have been failing for years in providing affordable and reliable travel.

    So, explain to me how market forces are improving these services? Because from where I’m sitting these all look a lot worse than they used to be.

  3. Maybe in the Edwina Curry mindset, people of the UK just need to shit less. I bet in her youth people didn’t shit so much.

    They have a hosepipe ban, why not impose a shitting ban as well?

    Now that we’re not encumbered by wasteful EU beauracrats, it should be easy enough to impose.

    Eat less, heat less, shit less.

  4. I took a look at the map on the “Safer Seas and Rivers” app run by Surfers against Sewage. At first glance there is a huge discrepancy between the alerts in England (where water is privatised) and in Scotland (where it is not). Even beaches along the same coast either side of the border are completely different. Eyemouth in Scotland had no pollution alerts in the last 2 years, while Berwick upon Tweed in England has 48 alerts so far this year. These beaches are 8 miles apart! Is this under reporting in Scotland or clear evidence that the current privatised method is completely failing?

  5. Went to Southend at the weekend and it stank like crap on Sunday.
    Visible flotsam of sewage right at the waters edge as the tide came in.
    Thankfully everyone was keeping out of the water.

  6. I noticed Truss did not say anything about this, despite it being a very pressing issue right now. It seems like she is happy for water companies to continue to break the law for the time being. We have some of the best beaches in Europe but that will not last much longer if the water is too dangerous to swim in. It will be fantastic blow to the tourist industry at exactly the wrong time.

  7. The tories changed the law this year that allows discharge of sewage into rivers, they previously weren’t allowed

  8. Ah, c’mon now, that’s a bit harsh, even for the BBC. I know they’re horrible, terrible people, but you don’t have to call the massive droves of illegal immigrants crossing the Channel by rubber dinghy and landing on our beaches “sewage pollution”!

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