Gaslighting MP seeks Bill to monitor water she twice voted to pollute

North Devon's current MP, using a Ten Minute Rule motion, presented the Bathing Waters (Monitoring and Reporting) Bill to Parliament this week, to lobby her own government on monitoring the water quality on our wonderful beaches.

The bill was introduced in the same week news broke of an outbreak of cryptosporidium, a vomiting bug, in Brixham due to contaminated drinking water.

South West Water says it is investigating the cause of the bug. Symptoms include; stomach pains, vomiting, diarrhoea and fever, lasting for between two to three weeks.

Ian Roome, the Liberal Democrat candidate for North Devon, has accused the MP’s Bill of gaslighting the public and called for tougher regulations of water companies like South West Water.

"This bill attempts to cover up the government's shameful record of weakening Ofwat's ability to regulate water companies," he said.

"Our Conservative MP has consistently voted against measures which would have helped to tackle the crisis in our rivers and the sea." 

North Devon Liberal Democrats are calling for tougher action against sewage dumping in local rivers/beaches, including replacing Ofwat with a tougher regulator.

New figures analysing sewage dumped in council areas have revealed that sewage was dumped into waterways in North Devon for 39,000 hours in 2023.

The analysis is based on official data from the Environment Agency, compiled by the House of Commons Library for the Liberal Democrats.

It shows sewage was dumped into local rivers and coastlines on 4,120 separate occasions in 2023.

This is a shocking 89% rise in the duration of sewage spills compared to the previous year, showing how the sewage scandal has worsened under the Conservative government's watch.

Ian Roome said: "It is a complete scandal that filthy sewage is being pumped into North Devon's rivers and the sea. 

"It beggars belief that Conservative MPs have allowed water firms to get away with this environmental vandalism. Local people are furious that Conservative politicians blocked tougher action on these disgraced firms.

"The Liberal Democrats are calling for tougher action to stop sewage being dumped in local rivers/beaches including replacing OfWat with a regulator that has real teeth to clamp down on these polluting firms."