Several Tory MPs, including Southport's MP Damien Moore, faced a huge backlash from constituents and campaign groups after they voted down an amendment concerning pollution tabled by the Lords last week.
However, the government has now U-turned by opting to put legal controls on water firms unloading raw sewage in the sea and rivers across the country, even though recently forcing Tory MPs to vote down similar proposals.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) recently announced that the Environment Bill "will be further strengthened with an amendment that will see a duty enshrined in law to ensure water companies secure a progressive reduction in the adverse impacts of discharges from storm overflows".
I was one of the concerned constituents who contacted Damien Moore about the ongoing pollution issue. Regardless on his official claims to respond to all correspondence, I have not received any reply from him, as yet.
Mr Moore has naturally defended his stance in voting down the sewage protection amendment and made criticism of others in the Champion newspaper and on OTS News.
https://www.otsnews.co.uk/southport-mp-defends-voting-down-sewage-protection-amendment/
Mr Moore apparently claims that some pollution remarks from correspondents are “laughable”.
Other people do not see any joke however in UK rivers being polluted, wildlife affected, or raw sewage being dumped into the seas around our coast.
Raw sewage leaked into our rivers more than 400,000 times in England last year, the Environment Agency said. Moreover, beaches up and down the country have been contaminated with human waste. This is not really a "laughable" situation, or is environmental and human health not as important as other issues to some?
Despite some abstentions, 265 Conservative MPs voted down the Lords amendment.
Nevertheless, the pollution - backing Tories who initially voted down the clean up amendment have now been left with egg on their faces. Angry public pressure and real concern for our fragile environment has apparently won through and we now see an official U-turn in progress - or do we?
Singer and environmental activist Feargal Sharkey, who has been a leading campaigner against sewage in rivers and seas, reacted with suspicion.
“Sending out a press release with no detail is not going to make us slow down,” he said. “The public is now demanding that it stops and stops immediately.”
How safe is our ecosystem in the hands of point-scoring politicians, who seem to make it all up as they go along?
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