Toby Perkins paid a visit to Julia Buckley and other Councillors and river campaigners to talk about river issues and how Labour would tackle them.
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00:00when they actually do the sewage outright.
00:04So what we're now saying is the Environment Agency will be put in charge of that monitoring.
00:09It's all been paid for by the Water Department, but the Environment Agency will be in charge of that monitoring.
00:13And let's get a real picture as to what's going on.
00:17And then we'll be also making sure that the companies themselves are held responsible
00:23for what they're doing.
00:26So they will be having plans on water company water policies
00:31as a result of if they continue to do that.
00:35So six of our companies last year have not received any water company policies
00:41as a result of their environmental pollution.
00:44What we're also going to do, crucially, is have criminal liability for water company policies.
00:50At the moment, the companies can be prosecuted, but the individuals are free.
00:57So you've got people often walking away having achieved millions of pounds of bonuses
01:02at the same time that they've polluted, knowing that maybe they couldn't have left behind
01:07and end up being fined.
01:09But if you're making billions of pounds of profit,
01:11millions of pounds of water,
01:13millions of pounds of brain,
01:15aren't that much of a disincentive.
01:17So we'll be holding them personally criminally liable.
01:21But it won't mean that they're having to pay the fine.
01:24The fact that it hasn't.
01:34Yeah, it is.
01:35And what our policies will show is the extent to which they are capable
01:39under the current environment that we're actually changing.
01:44And if they know there'll be no bonuses, there'll be criminal liability.
01:48And then obviously the next part of this whole equation is investment.
01:52Because one of the reasons this is happening,
01:55is actually we've had a long-term,
02:01in this country, not investing in water infrastructure.
02:06That's really pertinent here, isn't it?
02:08Because it's in a small town,
02:10you know, we've got that ancient Victorian infrastructure under way,
02:13and companies are telling us it's too expensive to dig up the roads.
02:16Because the council we've offered has said,
02:17we're digging up the roads anyway.
02:19There's ways to work collaboratively, isn't there, to unlock that.
02:24I mean, and also, you know, they're building a new riverside development.
02:27I mean, you only have to look at the sewage system underneath that.
02:30That is an area where the water gathers and floods badly.
02:34And you can't, you know, you can't neglect these issues.
02:38Flooding isn't going to go away.
02:40So, you know, the future of that will, you know,
02:46need big investment into the sewage and managing that as well.
02:51Well, what happens at the moment when you've got a new development,
02:53there is a responsibility on the developer
02:55to get sewage from the development to the main pipe.
02:58But clearly, over the course of 30, 40 years,
03:01we've had huge numbers of new developments,
03:03and the main original pipes run through the town.
03:06So, you know, you're getting new estates flooding into there.
03:10But that main pipe is still the same as it was before.
03:14There is still a sea.
03:21Hello, Miss Perkins, I'm Nick from Shoppingstar.
03:23Lovely to see you.
03:24Hi.
03:27We met, yeah.
03:28Yeah, I've already met you all.
03:29Kate and Rosemary, I know, of course.
03:32Yeah, Miss Perkins, thanks very much for coming down to shoot today.
03:35Welcome.
03:36I hope you've seen its best somehow on such a glorious day.
03:40Oh, I certainly enjoyed it.
03:41Yeah, well, absolutely.
03:44Yeah, so, obviously, as Shadow Minister for Nature and Rural Affairs,
03:52you have an interest in the floods, the water companies,
03:56what's going on with the rivers.
03:58It's been a big controversial topic in the Shrewsbury area.
04:03What's your take on how the Tories have dealt with
04:07holding the water companies, dumping sewage, into account
04:12and also their management of the flooding situation
04:17and how can Labour do much better?
04:19Yeah, so, I mean, it's a really good question to be asked,
04:24but they are sort of separate universities
04:28in terms of water quality right across the country.
04:32This is something that is a far bigger issue in this election
04:35than it's ever been before.
04:37I think people are just absolutely appalled
04:41by what we now know, the scale of the sewage dumping,
04:46the illegal sewage dumping that's been going on,
04:49by the amount of dishonesty there's been within water companies.
04:53We've got evidence that water companies have failed
04:57to quote the sewage dumps that they've been involved in.
05:03And so the whole issue of the quality of our water bodies
05:08is sort of all over this election in a way that it's never been before.
05:14So we need, as I was saying a moment ago,
05:17to hold water companies responsible
05:20so future Labour government would make the ban
05:25on the bonuses of any water companies involved in serious failure
05:30on the environment.
05:32That would have meant that six of the nine water companies
05:35would have paid no bonuses last year.
05:37And we think holding financial incentives of that kind
05:42will make a real difference.
05:44What we also want to do is introduce criminal liability
05:47for directors of water companies that illegally dump water in our water bodies.
05:53So again, there will be nothing taken off the table
05:57in terms of we'll need to look into whether that would be financial
06:02or whether that would be sort of punitive criminal sanctions.
06:06But there's nothing off the table in terms of that whole thing.
06:10So that's the thing on water quality in terms of sewage dumping.
06:14There's also a need to tackle agricultural runoff.
06:18So we know there's huge amounts of pesticides
06:20and other incredibly damaging things as part of our agricultural runoff.
06:28And so we'll be working through the environmental land management scheme
06:32to make sure that there's a huge reduction
06:35in terms of those other causes of pollution
06:38because sewage is only one part of the story.
06:41And then the other part of this, as you alluded to there,
06:45is flood defences.
06:47This is something that's very personal to me in Chesterfield.
06:50We've been flooded very badly twice in the last sort of 16 years.
06:55I'm just hearing here that people here have been flooded 20 times since 2020.
07:02It's just impossible to live your life under those circumstances
07:06where you know that every time it rains you're dashing home
07:09to see if your house is going to be a victim of floods.
07:14So there's two different responses to that.
07:17One of them is about building infrastructure.
07:21Well, in fact, there's three different parts to this.
07:24One is about building the infrastructure.
07:27The second is about nature-based solutions
07:29so that we flood upstream to protect homes downstream,
07:34bringing farmers and other agriculture, rural communities upstream
07:41into that whole equation so that we can slow down the pathway.
07:47And then the third part of this is about climate change.
07:50You know, people talk about climate change
07:52as though it's something that will happen in the future.
07:54It's happening right now, and every person who's flooded in Shrewsbury
07:58is a victim of climate change.
08:00So we need to take seriously when you have those.
08:03I'm afraid you have here in Shrewsbury a Member of Parliament
08:06that doesn't take climate change seriously.
08:09We need to continue to ignore the consequences of climate change.
08:12We can't just concrete our way out of that.
08:15We need to put in place all of the things that we've been talking about
08:20to reduce the impacts of climate change, more renewable energy,
08:25less fossil fuels, less of a dependence on the things that cause climate change.
08:31So all of those will be a part of this story.
08:39OK, sorry, I've spoken too long.
08:45Can we just introduce you for the camera purposes?
08:53Siobhan Connor.
08:54Siobhan Connor, yeah.
08:55This is Siobhan Connor, and you live in Shrewsbury.
09:00You're part of the Shrewsbury Flood Action Group, correct?
09:04Siobhan, do you want to talk us through how it's impacted you,
09:08the flooding situation, particularly in the last few years?
09:11Yeah, so I'm a third generation of flooding since 1997 here in Shrewsbury.
09:16I live just along the river here.
09:19Within a couple of hours we have waste-level amounts of water, sewage, in our home.
09:26We've been flooded about 20 times since the year 2000.
09:31Then it was every three years, five years, seven years.
09:35Since 2020, it's been twice a year.
09:40In this last year, 2023, it's been three times a year.
09:45So six months of the year, we're being flooded.
09:48Six months of the year, we're recovering.
09:51We're cleaning up after that flood, and then we go again.
09:54And this is how life is now, for me and many people in Shrewsbury,
09:58for businesses, for residents, and also our rural community as well.
10:03You know, there's a farmer's market.
10:06Flood costs about £20,000 in damage and costs as well.
10:11Businesses are struggling, and it's really important.
10:16You know, we've brought us together as a community.
10:19We've got a strong flood action group.
10:21We are one voice now from South Shropshire to North Shropshire,
10:25and we're not going to put up with this.
10:27We've also done a lot of work to make sure those residents and businesses
10:30can draw down the grants, which are becoming ever more difficult to secure.
10:34And when we're hearing about businesses being flooded,
10:36it doesn't just affect the turnover of that business.
10:38We're talking about services for the community.
10:40I know in your area right here in Poland, Kate,
10:42we've got things like funeral directors, dentists.
10:44We're talking about services where they're completely cut off,
10:47the road is closed.
10:48That whole community then can't access basic services.
10:51So this is affecting a growing number of residents, businesses,
10:54and communities in Shrewsbury.
10:56And it's time to take it seriously.
10:58One of the things that Labour want to do is have an annual COBRA-style meeting
11:01every autumn before the flood season starts.
11:04So we're saying, where are the areas affected?
11:06What resources do they need?
11:08How can we get that ready before quarter hits
11:10so people like Siobhan aren't phoning up after they've been flooding
11:13saying, where's the help?
11:15We want to put it in before it starts and show people
11:17that a Labour government cares about this and will take it seriously.
11:24How high up on the agenda do you think this is for shooting people?
11:27And Julia, is this something you're getting an awful lot of questions
11:32and appeals for help on?
11:35That's right. You've probably seen we're out knocking on doors,
11:37speaking to residents.
11:38We're speaking to about 1,500 people a week at the moment.
11:41And you'd be surprised how often this comes up
11:43because it's not just town centre areas like this.
11:46So we have over 20 sewage outflows just in this leap of the river here.
11:49So lots of people in the centre are very much aware of the toxic levels
11:53of that flooding and the sewage.
11:55And also, as Siobhan said, some of those villages slightly out,
11:58like Hanwood, Pondsbury, Minsterley, with the railroad, they are also flooded.
12:02So some houses are actually double flooded by rivers on both sides.
12:05So this affects a huge number of people.
12:07And even though it's gloriously sunny at the moment,
12:09when we're knocking doors, this is still coming up on a regular basis
12:13because people feel let down by the government.
12:15The difficulty of getting hold of grants,
12:18the reduced support from the Environment Agency,
12:20the lack of funding, the lack of taking this seriously
12:23is left people in Shrewsbury feeling completely ignored.
12:26And it's time they understood that Labour cares about them
12:28and we're making this a top priority.
12:32And I said in my interviews I did in January,
12:34so January the 4th, ITV News, National News,
12:38I felt abandoned.
12:40We felt abandoned here in Shrewsbury.
12:43The warnings are not sufficient from the EA,
12:47these automated warnings that one minute,
12:50you're over the record levels and then it sinks again
12:54and then you're up again.
12:56Everything seems so inaccurate.
12:58You don't get any support.
13:01You just have to rally together as a community.
13:04And you don't have to live near a river to flood.
13:07As we've seen from our flood map we've put together,
13:10there's many places in our county,
13:12they have the run-off from the farmers,
13:15from South Shropshire to North Shropshire.
13:17There's so many different types of flooding,
13:19from groundwater to rivers and sewage.
13:22We've come together as a community,
13:24we've identified who these people are
13:26and the list is shocking quite frankly.
13:29Let's be clear, the staff at the Environment Agency
13:32are very highly qualified and do an excellent job.
13:34But the Conservative government cut funding
13:36to the Environment Agency by 50% over the last five years.
13:40So it's those cuts, the support and the complaint
13:43about the excellent job that the actual staff themselves do.
13:46We basically want to see more of them.
13:48And just as Taylor was describing,
13:49giving them that statutory independent role
13:51of monitoring both the sewage
13:53and the early warning and support around flooding.
13:58Councillor Kate Halliday for Bellevue and Colham,
14:01Labour councillor.
14:03You're in the trenches every time this happens,
14:05aren't you, really, with your community
14:07over in Bellevue and Colham.
14:10Would you echo the things that Julia and Siobhan have said
14:14about the community feeling abandoned
14:17and, well, every time they come together in an incredible way,
14:21don't they, to support each other over in Bellevue and Colham?
14:25Yes, absolutely.
14:27It's very transformative when the flooding comes in.
14:30These local businesses, and it is largely businesses in my ward,
14:35they're the village, they're the heart and soul of my local area
14:40and they pull together, they work really hard.
14:43I'd like to echo what Siobhan says about
14:45just how difficult it is to get grants.
14:48And the local authorities aren't provided with any support
14:51to issue those grants.
14:53It's very time-consuming for them.
14:55And I think as a result, a lot of people just give up
14:59because it's so difficult or they run out of time.
15:02I really welcome the regular testing.
15:04Another big issue for people is just how dirty the water is here,
15:10just how much sewage is pumped into this river.
15:13The water companies at the moment are basically being asked
15:16to test their own homework.
15:18They're testing their own homework a handful of times a year.
15:22We really need to get Labour's plan of putting this back
15:26into the hands of the Environment Agency
15:29for us to really be able to clean up these rivers.
15:33So I really think that's going to make a dramatic difference
15:37to sewage, together with all the other policies
15:42that we're hoping to implement.
15:52Final thing from my point of view is I'm really grateful
15:55that Julia's brought me down here to see it, to meet Siobhan,
15:59to actually hear about the impact of it on the community.
16:03It's great for Shrewsbury to have someone who is absolutely
16:07banging the drum to get this sorted, to take climate change seriously,
16:11to make sure that we have both nature-based
16:15and infrastructure solutions to try and make things better
16:19for people here in Shrewsbury.
16:21I think that people here do feel like they've been abandoned
16:24for too long a period of time, and I think that Julia
16:27will be a great advocate for the town in Parliament
16:32if people in Shrewsbury give her a chance.