Ban water bill increases until Santa swims are no longer cancelled – MP
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Water bills should freeze while sewage threatens Santa swims and surfing, an MP has said. Ben Maguire called for new limits in the Commons on Thursday, after the watchdog Ofwat said it will allow firms to raise average bills by £31 a year over the next five years.
Surf therapy charity The Wave Project cancelled its annual Santa Surf event at Newquay’s Fistral Beach in Cornwall last month, according to a post on its chief executive Ramon Van de Velde’s LinkedIn account. He said “an ocean full of sewage is not a safe space – not good for your health and wellbeing” after a storm overflow discharge, and said the state of waterways is “a political issue, and something our politicians can and should solve”.
Mr Maguire, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, told the Commons: “North Cornwall has world-class beaches and rivers but Santa swims have been cancelled due to the constant dumping of raw sewage. “Meanwhile, water companies receive millions from billpayers but then the very next day give it away to their shareholders.”.
He called for a “total ban on water bill rises” until the end of the sewage dumping “scandal”, which he described as “the best gift (Environment Secretary Steve Reed) could give (his) constituents this Christmas”. Mr Reed replied: “(Mr Maguire) is quite right to point to the scandalous situation the previous government left our waterways in, with record levels of pollution, raw sewage, filthy in our rivers, lakes and seas.
