Last week, Sally-Ann Hart, MP for Hastings and Rye, attended an event in Parliament hosted by Surfers Against Sewage to show her support for their campaign to reduce sewage pollution and increase the number of designated bathing water areas.
Given the importance of the issue to local residents, reducing sewage pollution is an area that Sally-Ann has taken an active interest, including raising the concerns of her constituents with government ministers ahead of the Environment Act 2021 being passed into law. This act enshrines better protections into law, providing the government with powers to set new binding environmental targets, and this event was an opportunity for Sally-Ann and other MPs to help ensure reducing sewage pollution remains at the top of the political agenda.
During the event, the ongoing issues related to inland bathing water quality were discussed in detail, as were potential solutions with the primary one suggested being to increase the number of sites designated for bathing. The official designation of such sites has been instrumental in improving coastal water quality over the last three decades and, since coastal bathing waters were introduced, the percentage of beaches meeting minimum water quality standards rose from 27% to 89%.
Bathing water designation is achieved by applying to a government agency and, historically, local authorities have taken the lead on this. However, existing designations have also been achieved by communities campaigning and applying for it too.
Commenting, Sally-Ann said: “I know from speaking to residents across Hastings and Rye how important reducing sewage pollution is to many people locally, and I was pleased to join Surfers Against Sewage at their recent event in Parliament to show my support for their ongoing campaign.
“Last year’s environment act was a big step in the right direction, empowering government ministers to better hold water companies to account, but I know more work needs to be done to ensure bathing waters – both coastal and inland – are better protected for the enjoyment of all.”
Image Credits: Jack Masterman .
I think the author of this article and our MP are either uninformed or advocating fake news. Our inland and coastal waters have seriously deteriorated over the last 12 years. Just yesterday (14 July) as reported in several national news sources, the head of the Environment Agency called for “water chiefs to be fined and jailed” for illegal dumping of sewage into our waterways. The levels of human sewage and commercial runoff of chemicals from industry and farming, have made British rivers, lakes and coastal areas far less safe for recreation than in 2010. And Southern Water, our regional supplier, is ranked as the worst in the country. I have yet to read any criticism of their horrendous behaviour by elected officials.
A point of fact, Sally-Ann Hart voted against fines and further punishments for water companies in 2021. These are the same companies that were supposed to take on full financial and operational responsibility for water and sewage. When the government sold ownership to these private companies under Mr George Osborne’s instigation, the public was told that it was now the financial responsibility of the newly formed private water/sewage companies to care for the infrastructure. They have failed miserably in doing so. This is in parallel with reduced funding of the Environment Agency, which has impeded the EA from expanding investigations of illegal dumping of sewage and chemicals.
This article is another example of Rye News having a party political slant, which is highly unfortunate and unnecessary. RN would be in a much stronger position if it sought to critically report rather than trumpet political propaganda. I know it’s all volunteers and I do appreciate the work involved, but this isn’t about additional work, it’s about quality and accuracy and the reporting of news, not about reporting another photo opportunity for a politician. I don’t understand why the writer of this article did not question Ms Hart’s voting record regarding environmental protection of waterways? Or why she was not questioned about funding reductions for the Environment Agency? Or why the government is weakening environmental protection laws that were enforced when we were in the EU?
Well said Paul, I couldn’t agree more. Rye News, you really need to get a grip on this aspect of your publication. Hardly a week goes by now without you acting as a mouthpiece for SAH. I can’t understand why you don’t seem to question (even gently) anything she says. If I’m missing something here do let us know.
I feel like the same. I like Rye News and respect the people who put it together greatly (and donate to help keep it running), but the faithful reproduction of anything SAH sends them is deeply unedifying. I ran an MP’s Westminster office back in the day, and we used to churn stuff like this out knowing that local publications desperate for copy would just print them unchanged (events like the Surfers Against Sewage bash provide you with a photo and a cookie cutter release so there’s no work involved). I know resources are tight, but I guess I just thought Rye News would have more of a critical eye.
I think all the reasons for this distorted editorial have been well laid out by Dr Camic and by Delbert. To pick up on the latter’s comment, it’s absolutely true that today unmoderated political messaging is being spewed at us from every direction. It’s cynical, polarising and actually rather corrosive to faith in politics. But its not Rye News’s fault – or other small publications: They simply haven’t got the time or resources to compete with political comms machines. And after a gruelling day at work or wrangling kids, most ordinary folk don’t have the mental bandwidth to pay attention or to care about all this regurgitated political cud. Frankly, the only consolation is that it’s largely a waste of time for the spinmeisters. Moreover, we have folk who can scrutinise it. So, personally, I think RN should do exactly what it’s been doing, offer up this nonsense and let people dissect it. Let’s see the stark evidence of just how stupid, naive and uninformed our political representatives really think we are…
PS I know there are time and effort constraints but one piece of low hanging fruit that could easily have been picked this week (presumably with a simple phone call or email) is which of the candidates SAH favoured for the leadership and why! Hardly Pulitzer Prize winning stuff. Actually, possibly something that SAH could have volunteered to her constituents anyway!