CUTE! (Debate)

Mon 3 Aug 2020, 11:41 (last edited on Mon 3 Aug 2020, 11:44)

                                          Well that got your attention at least!

                                        It stands for:  Clean Up The Evenlode!

                        To which we might add:  Don’t let it become The Overlode!

So this is a ‘follow on’ from the Evenlode thread on the main forum, as unavoidably it was becoming ‘political’, if with no-one defending the current regime.  Liz Leffman’s posts confirm my worst fears both about the obligations – or lack of them – the water companies face and the complacency of both the Environment Agency (see WASP blog, link below) and DEFRA (see Liz’s last post)– and by extension of course the government.

Anyone acquainted with our local rivers will know they are suffering - see main forum thread.  Present requirements and objectives in this area stem from EU directives.  The Environment Bill that is to replace them and to set up a new regulatory framework is due back in Parliament in the autumn.  It remains to be seen whether it will result in any improvements in monitoring and regulation; it may even result in reduced requirements and weaker objectives.

But – concerns here are not the exclusive preserve of the greens, liberals or lefties.  Our own Mr Courts has I know been involved in correspondence and more about it – and as a lawyer, must (I hope!) be acutely conscious of the inherent conflict of interest in the water companies being responsible for monitoring their own performance (that his party instituted in 2010).  Also interested is his neighbour, Mr Clinton-Brown (https://www.windrushwasp.org/blog-1).  And the private members’ bill announced here (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/02/mp-crackdown-raw-sewage-discharges-rivers-philip-dunne-private-members-bill-polluter ) comes from the Conservative member for Ludlow.  

If you read my last post, you’ll have seen I was hoping for an initial meeting on 3^rd to explore whether and how we might take things forward locally.  WASP are now holding another zoom session on 11^th aimed more at other groups so reluctant though I am to postpone, I think we’d be better informed after that – so am now looking at Thurs 13^th or Sat 15^th instead – details to be confirmed.  The purpose will be to discuss whether we might form a similar ‘sister’ organisation to WASP or whether simply to encourage people to engage with existing bodies. By all means let me know if you’d like to attend, strictly no obligation to get involved – but also by all means start lobbying our MP – no need to be an ‘expert’, the more people who simply express concern to him the better.