Issue - meetings

To consider the following Motion in the names of Councillors Butt, Scott, Marchington and P A Davies;

“This Council notes that:

1) Most of the UK has a combined sewerage system, meaning that both rainwater and waste water (from toilets, bathrooms and kitchens) are carried in the same pipes to a sewage treatment works. However, during heavy rainfall, the capacity of these pipes can be exceeded, which has the potential to back up and flood people’s homes, roads and open spaces, unless it is allowed to spill elsewhere. As a result, the system is designed to overflow occasionally and discharge excess wastewater into our rivers and seas. However, data shows that the use of overflows is not occasional, as it should be;

2) Sewage and wastewater discharge is a significant factor in water quality and has an adverse impact on the health of river ecosystems;

3) According to the Wildlife Trusts, only 16% of waters in England are currently in good ecological health and none meet chemical standards. This means that, overall, there are no rivers, lakes, estuaries or seas in England that are currently in a healthy condition;

4) This is a local issue as well. Last year, the amount of time sewage was allowed to spill into Yorkshire’s waterways was 232,054 hours, with 54,273 monitored spill events. According to the Environment Agency, parts of Yorkshire have some of the highest number of serious water pollution incidents in England and Kirklees has ranked amongst the highest in recent years.

Data from 2021 has revealed that 5 of the top 20 most polluted rivers are in Yorkshire, with the River Calder the second most sewage-polluted waterway in the country, with sewage flowing into the river and tributaries for 27,901

hours;

5) The Labour Party has published a plan to end the Conservative Sewage Dumping Scandal, with action to:

• Deliver mandatory monitoring of all sewage outlets

• Give the Environment Agency the power to properly enforce the rules

• Introduce a legally binding target to end 90% of sewage discharges by 2030

• Introduce automatic fines for discharges, and a standing charge penalty for discharge points without monitoring in place

• Ensure any failure to improve is paid for by eroding dividends, not added to customer bills, or hitting vital investment in the system

• Make sure that water bosses that routinely and systematically break the rules will be held professionally and personally accountable, by striking off company directors and ensuring illegal activity is punished.

The national Liberal Democrat party has published a plan to help tackle the sewage scandal. This includes:

• A ‘Sewage Tax’ of 16% on water companies to create an emergency fund for cleaning up rivers. The party believe that a significant proportion of the profits that water companies make should be reinvested to protect Britain’s streams and rivers, as it should be the water companies and not consumers who should pay to clean up the mess.

• Local environmental groups to be added onto  ...  view the full agenda text for item 16:

Motion approved.