I have joined my MP colleagues from across Sussex to write in the strongest terms to Southern Water and the Environment Agency demanding that the Sussex waterways and coast are respected and protected. In the letter, we have highlighted that 'Once again, the rivers and coastline across Sussex are being blighted by the discharge of sewage'.
The cost to our communities and business is significant and we have raised this: 'In addition to the obvious environmental and community impact, the closure of popular beaches and restrictions on inland waterways causes financial loss to the numerous businesses who rely on our beaches and rivers’.
New legislation puts a duty on water authorities to take action to eradicate sewage discharges, and we have emphasized that ‘We were pleased to support a Conservative amendment to the Environment Bill which, after decades of inaction by Governments of all political shades, for the first time ever, puts a statutory obligation to eradicate this practice.”
We have called for an urgent meeting in Parliament with both organisations ‘in order to get an action plan and timeline’ for this duty to be delivered.
In addition to this meeting, details of each and every discharge across individual constituencies has been requested alongside details of the role played by the Sussex Resilience Forum (LRF) in delivering emergency action between local authorities and agencies. We are also due to be meeting separately with representatives of the LRF to assess its capacity to coordinate responses to emergency events.
A copy of the letter is included below: