World Rivers Day, Anglian Water, MP James Wild, St Michael’s School Ingoldisthorpe, Thérèse Coffey: Lynn News letters September 30
RIVERS
Our MP is supporting this sabotage
This week saw World Rivers Day, and Cllr Rob Colwell’s brilliant idea to draw attention to the rank sabotage of our rivers.
Our MP James Wild waxes lyrical about his endeavours to save our chalk streams. Just this week he has been quoted as saying: “I’ve campaigned on improving chalk streams and stopping the damaging impact of storm overflows since I was elected.”
But his voting record starkly contradicts his words.
In 2021, the ‘sewage bill’ was brought to the House of Commons with Lords Amendment 45 which would have placed a legal duty on water companies to reduce the harm caused by sewage discharges and required the various agencies to use their powers of enforcement to support the goal of eliminating the harm caused by sewage pollution.
First, in October 2021, the Government motioned an amendment to the Lords Amendment that would have:
• Confined the regulations to storm overflows and not the sewerage system as a whole;
• Provided no specific duty on OFWAT or the EA to ensure compliance.
It refers to ‘adverse impacts’ rather than ‘reductions in harm’.
Secondly on, in November 2021, the Government motioned to disagree with the Lords Amendment 45B and propose its own amendment that again:
• Confined the regulations to storm overflows and not the sewerage system as a whole;
• Refers to ‘adverse impacts’ rather than ‘reductions in harm’.
• Ensure compliance by placing specific duty on the Secretary of State and those authorised by the Secretary of State.
Critically, these motions sought to weaken the Lords Amendment such that, within the Environment Bill, there was no longer a legal duty on water companies to reduce harm caused by sewage discharges, and no longer required the various agencies to use their powers of enforcement to support the goal of eliminating the harm caused by sewage pollution, restricting those with powers to just the Secretary of State and those delegated by the same.
James Wild voted in favour of both these motions.
Nationally:
• Every river in England is now polluted beyond legal limits;
• The Environment Agency rated only 14% of rivers as ‘good’ in 2019;
• 36% of English rivers have been damaged by water companies;
• Water companies released untreated human waste directly into our waterways over 400,000 times for a total of three million hours in 2020 alone;
• Government funding to the Environment Agency to monitor river quality, and regulate farms and water companies has dropped 75% since 2010/11.
What is clear is that our rivers are deteriorating and more needs to be done to preserve and protect them. The critical point there is that positive action needs taking, not prettied words from James Wild.
David Sayers
Clenchwarton
POEM
Treasured memories
St Michael’s School. Ingoldisthorpe,
Brings back a host of lovely thoughts.
A rectory set in country grounds,
Where Christian teaching did abound.
Our headmaster the Rev Roger Pott,
Spent years of dedication to the lot.
The barouche was his favourite car,
And marked his coming like a star.
A church service to start the day,
Then lessons were well on the way.
Mrs Muzio was my first teacher at the school,
She was great and followed the rule.
The lessons that stand out in my mind,
Were of the practical kind.
Pottery, weaving and embroidery we did learn,
As well as letter writing and a painting turn.
Reading Pilgrim’s Progress was the way
And studying famous artists made our day.
Latin and French still recalled so clear,
Even after 70-plus long years
Mother Nature study books did abound,
With nature walks to a chalk pit all so round.
Picking daffodils in a field close by
And down to the forge to see sparks fly.
Mid summer camp beds on which to rest,
And then enjoy the flowers at their best.
Saturday morning school went very fast,
Rounded off with buttered roll and cheese at last!
Memories of Dick Barton and his gang playing a game.
Someone I cannot recall adopted this detective’s name.
Babes in the Wood was acted out at the headmaster’s home
And I was a robin dressed in brown crepe paper and all alone.
In 1947 deep snow drifts set the scene at will,
Our school bus with chains on wheels could not make the hill.
A slide appeared on the drive next day,
So we all enjoyed the thrill of speed as you might say.
It is wonderful to recall these special moments as a child,
When life was so full of peaceful abandonment and not so wild.
To remember the names of so many friends was a real challenge to my mind.
St Michael’s certainly produced a special intellectual kind!
Ernestine Sizeland nee Gill
Past pupil 1946-51
GRAMMAR
So many more things she should be worrying about
Well, well, well! Therese Coffey, Secretary Of State For Health & Social Services, and, deputy prime minister, has certainly set the literary world alight, with her comments about how (not) to use the ‘Oxford comma’...
Frankly, this ‘obscure’ NHS diktat about the use of grammar has produced more notoriety about Dr Coffey’s political activities than in the whole of her time as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
However, what people are most concerned about is that the National Health Service really needs – someone with grip and courage to affect game changing decisions in the national interest.
Such as:
(i) to reduce the rapidly lengthening waiting list(s) for treatment; and,
(ii) to sort out the inadequate financial remuneration of nurses’ pay.
However, may I say that this arcane argument about the use of certain aspects of language within the NHS is definitely not the most productive way to begin tackling one of the biggest tasks, anywhere in government?
Of course, language is important. Being clear. Speaking and writing effectively is more than just being helpful when dealing with matters of the nation’s health. Especially regarding crucial policy issues that have a direct bearing on life and death.
So, may we implore the new NHS supremo to sideline these peripheral elements of her job and focus 100% on things that really matter to people. Namely: drastically improving the quality of management within our most cherished achievement within the post-war welfare state.
And, in doing so, Dr Coffey, representing a Suffolk coastal constituency, will have the thanks of a grateful nation.
Jim Mitchell
via email
WATER
Global heating may not be on their agenda
We keep hearing Anglian Water touting plans for their new megabucks reservoir and releasing little teasers about its location on the Fen border between Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.
This watery marvel will safeguard water supplies for millennia, apparently, so I hope they’ve checked with the eco doom mongers who are convinced the Fens will be inundated by the sea in a few years.
Extinction Rebellion even prepared a map showing the predicted sea levels.
Knowing how Anglian Water can’t work out how to keep their pipes from leaking or stop raw sewage flowing into the sea and rivers, I suspect details like global warming may have escaped their attention too. Salty drinking water anyone?
Steve Mackinder
Denver
