Oldham Council and Saddleworth Parish Council should demand that United Utilities take urgent action to stop sewage discharges in Saddleworth

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. We call on United Utilities to clean up our streams using their money, instead of paying out to shareholders and charging customers more. We call on Oldham Council and Saddleworth Parish Council to demand that United Utilities take urgent action to stop sewage discharges in Saddleworth and across Oldham. We call on the government to hold those running water companies to account to ensure they work in the public interest, to ensure illegal activity is punished, to introduce mandatory monitoring of sewage outlets and to introduce automatic fines for sewage discharges.