Oxford MP slams government for leaky sewage record

Speaking in the House of Commons, MP Layla Moran highlighted Thames Water discharged sewage for 676 hours from the Witney Sewage Treatment works and upstream from Port Meadow over the Christmas period.

Ms Moran called on the environment minister Rebecca Pow to introduce stricter targets for bathing status areas and a “cast iron guarantee” that communities would not lose their bating status designation because of a lack of action from the government.

Ms Moran said: “Local people in Oxfordshire worked incredibly hard to campaign for bathing water status at Wolvercote Mill Stream on Port Meadow. 

READ MORE: Minister for Water Rebecca Pow raises concerns over Thames Water

“So we have been incredibly frustrated both by Thames Water’s poor record of discharging sewage, and the lacklustre action by the government on improving regulation.

“It is vital that the government takes urgent steps to improve environmental protections, so that local people are finally able to enjoy swimming in our rivers, lakes and seas.”

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “Taking action to improve the health of rivers is a key focus for us and our current investment programme, which is fully funded, will deliver major increases in treatment capacity at many of our sites.

"We’ve started a £15million upgrade of Witney sewage works which will increase the site’s treatment capacity by 60 per cent, with completion expected to be in early 2024.

Minister for Environmental Quality and Resilience Rebecca Pow in the water at Wolvercote (Image: Newsquest)

"Fairford and Ampney St Peter sewage works will also receive significant increases to their treatment capacities and we’re currently finalising plans for a major £130million upgrade at Oxford sewage works. 

“As a member of the Oxford Rivers Project, who made the application for designated bathing water status at Wolvercote Mill Stream, we’ll continue to work with our partners to understand what more needs to be done to ensure consistently good water quality in the Thames.

"We are absolutely committed to protecting and enhancing our rivers and the communities who love them, and we want to make these discharges of diluted sewage unnecessary as quickly as possible. 

“We are the first company to provide alerts for inland waters and this ‘near real-time’ data is available to customers as a map on our website.

"We want to lead the way with this transparent approach to data and the alerts will be available through an open data platform for third parties, such as swimming and environmental groups, to use. 

“Of course, what matters most is stopping the need for the discharges. Our shareholders have recently approved a business plan that sees us spending an additional £2billion beyond what our customers are funding so we can improve outcomes for customers, leakage and river health. 

"This will allow us to deliver our commitment to a 50 per cent reduction in the total annual duration of discharges across London and the Thames Valley by 2030, and within that an 80 per cent reduction in sensitive catchments.”