“Pumping poison into our precious chalk streams and rivers is ecological vandalism and it’s happening right here in St Albans, Harpenden and the surrounding areas.”

Daisy Cooper MP is backing a new bill in parliament to ban water companies from dumping raw sewage into local rivers and chalk streams, such as the River Ver and River Lea.

Data for 2021 just released by the Rivers Trust[i] show that the sewer storm overflow at the Markyate Wastewater Treatment Works, operated by Thames Water, discharged untreated effluent into the River Ver as many as 139 times for a total of 2,642 hours during the year.

Another wastewater treatment works at Harpenden, also run by Thames Water, recorded 13 spills over a total of 120 hours into the River Lea.

Compared with the Markyate discharges lasting 2,642 hours, monitoring carried out at six separate sewer overflows along the River Lee from Luton to Hereford recorded 98 spills lasting a total of 1,030 hours.

For England as a whole, data released by the Environment Agency[ii] reports there were more than 372,000 sewage discharges lasting more than 2.6 million hours.

Only 14 per cent of our rivers now meet standards for good ecological status, according to the Rivers Trust, with wildlife groups warning sewage is the biggest risk to animals living in or near waterways, and fears that dogs swimming in rivers are in danger of being poisoned.

The Sewage Discharges Bill[iii], presented in parliament by the Liberal Democrats, seeks to ban water companies from dumping sewage into waterways and to name and shame companies found to poison animals.

The Lib Dems are also demanding a “sewage bonus ban” to outlaw future bonuses for water company bosses until sewage dumps stop.

Analysis of Companies House records, by the Lib Dems, reveals that water companies made a staggering £2.7 billion in operating profits in 2020-21. Thames Water, which was responsible for 33,156 discharges UK-wide in 2020 and 2021, earned revenue of £2.10 billion and made an operating profit of £488 million, while paying its senior executives £2.37 million in bonuses on top of base pay and pensions worth £2.59 million.

Daisy Cooper MP said: “Pumping poison into our precious chalk streams and rivers is ecological vandalism and it’s happening right here in St Albans, Harpenden and the surrounding areas.

“It is appalling that Thames Water was able to discharge raw sewage into the River Ver for the equivalent of four months of the year – and that there’s nothing in law to stop it. I am horrified at the thought of the harm caused to those animals that drank from the same waters that feed the lakes of Verulamium Park, with its thriving wildlife and numerous dog walkers.

“It beggars belief that water companies like Thames Water can earn billions in profits each year while pumping raw sewage into the River Ver and River Lee. The fastest way to end sewage discharges is for the Government to ban the water companies from paying their bosses huge bonuses until the problem is fixed and to force them to report on the wildlife they’ve killed in the process.

“Liberal Democrats are saying enough is enough – it is time the Conservatives in government acted to save our precious animals and wildlife from endless sewage dumps.”

[i] https://theriverstrust.org/sewage-map

[ii] https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2022/03/31/storm-overflow-spill-data-released-today-shows-no-room-for-complacency

[iii] Sewage Discharges Bill – a bill to set mandatory targets and timescales for the ending of sewage discharges into waterways and coastal areas; to make provision about the powers of Ofwat to monitor and enforce compliance with those targets and timescales; to require water companies to publish quarterly reports on the impact of sewage discharges on the natural environment, animal welfare and human health; to require the membership of water company boards to include at least one representative of an environmental group; and for connected purposes. Hansard: https://rb.gy/oudskx.

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“I was really pleased to support this campaign – I’m an animal lover, and I know that many people in St Albans are too. Huge numbers of constituents wrote to me as supporters of the Stop the Sea Blast campaign.”

Daisy Cooper MP joined actor Joanna Lumley to lend support to a nation-wide campaign to protect sea life being harmed by unexploded munitions – which has already seen some success.

The Absolutely Fabulous star was in Parliament to meet and thank MPs and peers who have been supportive of the Stop Sea Blasts campaign. Daisy was already listed as a Parliamentary supporter on the campaign’s website.

The campaign was started over concerns about 100,000 tonnes of unexploded ordnance that lie in waters around the UK, left over from the First and Second World Wars.

These bombs, mines and shells need to be cleared for the construction of offshore wind farms and there are an estimated 50 clearances for this reason each year.

Done the existing way, disposals are carried out by blowing up the bomb or mine. This causes huge disruption to marine habitats and threatens the survival of whales and dolphins.

On the same day that Daisy met Joanna, the UK Government published a policy paper addressing the campaign issue stating they supported the use of “lower noise alternatives” in place of what it calls “high order detonation”, as it recognises that marine species can be injured and/or killed by the sound from blasts.

Daisy said: “I was really pleased to support this campaign – I’m an animal lover, and I know that many people in St Albans are too. Huge numbers of constituents wrote to me as supporters of the Stop the Sea Blast campaign.

“I completely endorse the use of new technology to ‘burn out’ these old bombs using the less dangerous use of burning the materials, known as deflagration, rather than using explosions that torture our sea life. So it’s an absolutely fabulous result that, as a result of Joanna Lumley throwing her weight behind the campaign, the Government is now taking steps for old munitions dumped around our coasts to be disposed of safely.”

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“Any further expansion to the airport must take into account the devastating impact of increased air traffic on climate change and the great health consequences of further air pollution on neighbouring districts”

Daisy Cooper MP has called in parliament for an application by Luton Airport to increase passenger numbers to 19 million a year to be ‘called in’ for scrutiny by central government.

Daisy was leading a debate in the House of Commons about the proposed expansion of Luton Airport, which also included Richard Fuller, MP for North East Bedfordshire, and Bim Afolami, MP for Hitchin and Harpenden.

She pointed out that in the 10 years to 2019, passenger numbers more than doubled from 9 million a year to exceed the approved capacity of 18 million. The airport is applying for permission to formally expand to 19 million passengers per year to remedy the breach.

Luton was not due to hit the threshold of 18 million passengers per year until 2028, meaning it has doubled in size in half the projected time. The airport is also drawing up longer-term plans to expand to 32 million passengers per year.

The huge rise in the number of planes has resulted in a 50% increase in aircraft movements, and this in turn has been compounded by all planes being required to navigate a narrow corridor between St Albans and Harpenden, meaning that residents beneath the flightpath are affected over and over again.

“The most pressing concern of my constituents is the noise from those flights,” Daisy told the House of Commons. “For many, the noise disrupts their peace and quiet and their sleep and rest, and is a major distraction from work and recreation. There is also increasing evidencethat this noise can have a profound effect on physical and mental health.”

“Approval in 2012 for the increase to 18 million passengers went hand in hand with noise control limits to be achieved by modernisation of the operating fleet, so as the skies got busier, they would become quieter. But according to local campaign groups the opposite has happened,” she said.

Daisy pressed the transport minister, Robert Courts, on what steps he could take to compel Luton Airport to keep its promises to implement real, meaningful noise-mitigation measures, and to speed up the much-needed improvements to already congested airspace to reduce the noise impact on Hertfordshire residents.

As it was, trust from community groups and residents has completely broken down, she said.

“They describe how they have been fobbed off with talk of the introduction of quieter planes, and asked to ignore real-world data showing that they are at best only marginally quieter than the ones they replaced.”

She also questioned how the minister could reconcile the further expansion of operations at Luton with the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee, the independent statutory body advising the Government, that “demand cannot continue to grow unfettered”.

And she asked the minister to commit to ensuring that there is no further growth in capacity at Luton until the promised noise reductions are delivered and aircraft have switched to sustainable aviation fuel.

“Any further expansion to the airport must take into account the devastating impact of increased air traffic on climate change and the great health consequences of further air pollution on neighbouring districts,” she said.

Daisy also raised the “real or perceived conflict of interest” at the heart of the airport’s expansion plans whereby Luton Borough Council owns the airport but the airport is run at arms’ length. As a result, the authority charged with making impartial judgments on planning and enforcement at the airport stood to lose the most from rejecting applications for expansion and from enforcement.

“There is understandable concern that although noise control limits were breached over the three years to 2019, no apparent enforcement action has been taken by the planning authority to remedy the situation in the same period. Instead, we see the submission of a further planning application to regularise the breaches to make the problem go away.”

Daisy called on the minister to ensure that the decision on the airport’s current application for a development control order is ‘called in’ for scrutiny by the secretary of state.

“That is absolutely critical to restore the trust of our local communities. A first step on that journey would be to make sure that the decision is not only impartial, but seen to be impartial.”

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