Protesters hold canal demo over discharge of raw sewage into Banburyshire waterways

Some of the 50 protesters wore ‘poo’ hats to demonstrate their anger at the amount of raw sewage being poured into the River Cherwell and Oxford Canal and against MP Victoria Prentis’s vote against an amendment to curtail the dumping of this pollution.

They also installed a satirical blue plaque in Banbury to highlight the ‘shocking state of our waterways’. A plaque was also placed on the statue of the Fine Lady at Banbury Cross.

The protesters were members of Extinction Rebellion, Banbury Community Action Group, Banbury Interfaith Group, Banbury and District Canoe Club and Cropredy Women’s Institute.

“The plaques highlight the government’s continued failure to tighten environmental regulations and stop profit-grabbing by water companies,” said ER member Jim Smith.

Mr Smith told the protest that in 2021, sewage was released from the Cropredy Waste Water Treatment Works for 1095.61 hours, or 45 days, and from Boddington canal feeder for 1,754 hours or 73 days.

"On the December 5, 2022 Thames Water announced half-yearly profits of £493.5m,” he said. “And soon after, in January, Thames water dumped sewage for days at Boddington and Cropredy.

“Sarah Bentley, Thames Water’s boss was given a £3.1million ‘golden hello’ for her signing on in 2020 in addition to her annual salary and bonuses, which rose to £2 million last year. Since privatisation, £72 billion has gone to shareholders - an average of £2 billion a year.

“The water companies have built up a debt mountain of £53 billion and used this to finance dividends for shareholders,” said Mr Smith. “Only 14 per cent of English rivers are considered to have good biological status – and our bills have gone up by 40 per cent in real terms since privatisation.

"And in December the Environment Agency announced it was pushing back targets to clean up England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters from 2027 to 2063.”

He said 265 MPs voted down an amendment to stop private water companies from dumping raw sewage into the UK’s rivers and coastlines. Among them was Mrs Prentis.

Sue Smith, 57, Cropredy WI Climate Ambassador said: “Cropredy WI discussed this year’s resolution on Clean Rivers for People and Wildlife. Members were horrified to hear that (early in 2023 alone) over 34 hours of raw sewage had been discharged into the Cherwell by January 7 and 400 hours at Boddington by January 12.”

“In 2021 Thames Water was rated as needing improvement by the Environment Agency,” said Mr Smith,

"Only 14 per cent of the UK’s rivers achieve ‘good’ ecological status with pollution from agriculture, human sewage, roads, and single-used plastics creating a dangerous chemical cocktail in our waterways. We can’t do this alone. We need everyone who cares about our rivers and seas to stand up with us and speak out.”

In a statement on the subject, a spokesman for Mrs Prentis said: “Victoria and her colleagues in Government are clear that the current use of sewage discharges is unacceptable. Through the passage of the landmark Environment Act last year, a commitment was placed on delivering a resilient and sustainable water supply, and significantly reducing the frequency and volume of discharges from storm overflows, on a statutory footing.

“The Government has been clear that while storm overflows are necessary to avoid sewage backing up in our streets, water companies should work towards ending their reliance on them. The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan will require water companies to deliver their largest ever environmental infrastructure investment - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years. Water companies will be required to take measures such as increasing the capacity of their networks and treating sewage before it is discharged, while massively reducing all discharges.

“By 2035, water companies will have to improve all storm overflows discharging into or near every designated bathing water and improve 75 per cent of overflows discharging to high priority nature sites. By 2050, this will apply to all remaining storm overflows covered by the targets, regardless of location. Ministers will review the plan in 2027 to consider where the Government can go further, taking account of innovation and efficiencies,” the spokesman said.

“While Victoria welcomes that huge progress is being made there is still more work to be done. That is why she wrote to the Chief Executive of Thames Water in November to ask about what is being done to safeguard the River Cherwell and limit sewage discharge into it. Just before Christmas, Victoria accepted an invitation to visit the Banbury Sewage Treatment Works and meet senior company representatives to discuss this in greater detail.

“After a frank conversation, Victoria was assured that Thames Water understand releasing untreated sewage into our rivers is unacceptable, and are working at pace to stop it. Victoria has been monitoring progress very closely and keeping constituents updated: A Cleaner River Cherwell | Victoria Prentis.

“Concerning the vote last week, the Environmental Targets (Water) (England) Regulations 2022 propose targets to improve water quality, building towards the Government’s ambition to end pollution from sewage discharges altogether. It is important to note that these regulations form part of an essential tranche of secondary legislation needed to implement the Environment Act, fulfilling the requirements of that Act that at least one target in each of four priority areas is set in air, water, biodiversity, and resource efficiency and waste reduction.”

The Regulations can be read in full here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2022/9780348242911.

For more on Extinction Rebellion’s campaign see https://actionnetwork.org/forms/dirty-water or visit https://rebellion.global/groups/gb-banbury/#events