Anna Firth is the MP for Southend West
Storm overflows and sewage spills have become the opposition’s political football of choice. Labour have sought to lay Parliamentary traps that generate media coverage, whilst the Liberal Democrats have pushed untrue and personalised social media attack ads against Conservative MPs leading to vicious attacks against MPs and their families.
Why? To obscure the fact that it is this Conservative Government that has taken the first concrete action to prevent the discharge of sewage into our waterways.
The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, launched in August 2022, requires water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in their history to tackle storm sewage discharges – a £56 billion capital investment over 25 years. Legally binding through the Environment Act 2021, the plan prioritises storm overflows that could cause the most harm while balancing the impact on consumer bills.
This legislation is hugely welcome, but knowledge of the action we are taking seems rarely to reach the general public. We must take communities with us to effectively tackle storm overflows. That is why in Southend and Leigh-on-Sea, I took action into my own hands. Engaging the local community, we have been able to go from protests on the seafront to constructive engagement. We are now making real progress on improving water quality and excess water management in our city.
When I first received the alerts that storm overflows were being used regularly along our seafront, I was absolutely horrified. People flock to our sea-side city throughout the summer to swim. A huge number of our local businesses rely on people coming to visit our beautiful beaches for their livelihoods.
Like many coastal communities, we also have many active sailing, yachting, and chill swimming groups, not to mention many new and old water sports. And like many coastal communities, it is vital that our beaches are clean and the water safe to swim in.
An initial meeting with the CEO of Anglian Water was swiftly followed by our first “Water Quality Summit” allowing all stakeholders to hold our water company’s feet to the fire on storm overflows, bringing together Anglian Water, Ofwat, the Environment Agency, Surfers Against Sewage, Southend-on-Sea City Council together with representatives from Southend’s swimming and sailing clubs and other local stakeholders. This has allowed the local community to vent their frustration at storm overflows productively and constructively.
Through robust, yet respectful questioning regarding the unacceptable overflow spillages into the Estuary, these summits have not only taken the anger out of the argument, but have pushed Anglian Water to do more to improve water quality in Southend. Indeed, their new business plan now features a commitment to make Southend an ‘international exemplar of excess water management’, a promise backed up by £104 million in local investment.
Equally important, they are now targeting reducing 75 per cent of CSO (combined storm-overflow) discharges in Southend by 2030, five years ahead of the Government’s statutory target of 2035. Their newly published National Storm Overflows Plan confirms that they are on track to achieve this, with the percentage of overflows meeting annual rainfall (spill) targets set to increase from 19 per cent in 2023 to 88 per cent by 2030.
Our third summit saw even more welcome commitments from Anglian Water to improve water quality in Southend. Firstly, a pilot scheme to test the water off each of Southend’s eight bathing beaches all year round rather than just in the bathing season has begun, something I and other colleagues have been repeatedly calling for in Parliament. Secondly, Anglian Water have also agreed to engage directly with concerned constituents as they roll out their new “near real time” water quality alert system, to enable residents and visitors to know if it is safe to swim with far greater accuracy and certainty.
Finally, Anglian Water is now working with Southend-on-Sea City Council and the Government to deliver new cutting-edge schemes to improve the city’s water management. The Surface Water Partnership Scheme on Marine Parade will see £2.1 million invested to remove an extra 400,000 cubic metres of excess surface water from the sewage system in a sustainable way as well as a scheme that will make Southend only the second place in the country to have revolutionary smart water butts. Water companies estimate these have the potential to reduce storm overflow discharges by 70 per cent.
In short, community engagement is paying dividends in tackling the issue of sewage discharges in Southend, ensuring that Anglian Water does not backtrack on its commitments. By working together, not only are we winning on this vital issue for our city, but we are also pushing ahead with greening our hard, cold, grey sea-front areas into far more beautiful, natural, planted-up areas which will not just enrich our lives but also form important natural aquifers.
Our Southend “water quality summits” prove that it is perfectly possible to both challenge opposition accusations and improve our communities. I would urge all of my Conservative colleagues, particularly those, who like me, represent coastal communities, to consider replicating this model. Not only can we deliver real and tangible proof that our party is tackling sewage in our waterways, but we can also allow our communities to express their frustrations in an arena that will generate healthy debate and collaboration rather than antagonistic protests.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats will continue to beat us with the ‘sewage stick’ unless we seize the initiative and take our communities with us. That is exactly what I have done in Southend, where sewage overflows have now ceased to be a political football.
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Author: Anna Firth MP
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