Oldham Labour Working for residents across Oldham and Saddleworth
Saddleworth Labour party is campaigning to clean up Saddleworth’s waterways.
Data from the Rivers Trust shows that in 2022 raw sewage was discharged from 17 locations in 537 separate spills for a total of 4,703 hours across Oldham East and Saddleworth.
In Saddleworth, discharges were reported along the River Tame at Clifton Holme, Delph New Road/Station Approach, Dobcross New Road, Greenfield and Woodbrook Road.
The Conservative Government has not only allowed this to happen – it voted down Labour’s attempts to make the privatised water companies clean up our streams and rivers.
United Utilities is responsible for keeping our water clean – and reported £788m profits in the year to 31st March 2023.
They now want us to pay to clean up their mess.
Saddleworth Labour is calling for mandatory monitoring of sewage outlets & automatic fines for sewage discharges, with a penalty for outlets that do not have monitoring in place, ending costly and inefficient prosecutions.
On top of this, the Rivers Trust reports that water sampling upstream at Pringle Mill also on the Tame in Delph, found a chemical cocktail of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid, PFOS, pFoctanoate. The Rivers Trusts says ‘Scientists have identified multiple toxic chemical cocktails that harm wildlife health, affecting growth, reproduction and survival rates. But there is still a lot that is unknown about the potential impacts of the many different chemical cocktails on the environment and on human health.’
Dominic Wall, Labour campaigner in Greenfield and Uppermill said ‘A Labour Government will set ambitious targets to cut sewage outflows and clean up our rivers, streams, and seas once and for all. It is an absolute disgrace that raw sewage is being put into the River Tame across Saddleworth and United Utilities needs to clean up its act, paying for improvement out of profits not our bills.’
Hannah Roberts, Labour campaigner in Delph and Denshaw added ‘The Environment Agency has found that United Utilities was the most polluting water company in England last year. United Utilities announced last week that it will pay a dividend of £300m to its shareholders. That money could and should be used to clean up Saddleworth’s streams.’
“Even with the botched Tory privatised railways, failed train operating companies lose their franchise. So why are failed water companies like United Utilities allowed to keep making profits out of us year after year?” asked Saddleworth Labour campaigner in Lees, Dave Barter.
ENDS