I’m writing to following a day in which residents in York rose up against the quality of water flowing through our city, and on which my local park in York remained closed because of flooding.
The flooding is not your primary responsibility. But the fact that the paths in the park, the benches and the children’s play equipment were covered with human waste toxins as a result is.
You waived your bonus last year because of the amount of sewage Yorkshire Water allowed into the rivers. Well, you’ll have to waive it again, as sewage continues to pollute our waterways.
So here’s your new corporate target. Not four and a half sewage dumps a day, as in 2022. Instead, no sewage dumps, on any day, in any year. If you can commit to achieving that target in a realistic, urgent timescale, we’ll back you.
And when you achieve it, we’ll back you to get your bonuses again.
So here’s your first step to meeting that target. Tell the government, tell Rishi Sunak, tell Keir Starmer, tell every politician you meet, that Yorkshire Water and the other water companies need to be regulated more tightly, because sewage dumps won’t stop without more regulation. And tell your shareholders they’ll have to wait for their money – it’s needed here in Yorkshire.
John Gray, Bishopthorpe Road
Strike against sewage
Thank you to the people who protested in York at the weekend against the sewage pollution in the River Ouse, courtesy of Yorkshire Water.
Sadly, I fear the protest will achieve little. It is time for a nationwide payment strike against the company: the only language they are likely to understand.
Yes, of course they will threaten fire, brimstone and legal action. But if we all do it, it would create a problem for them. Who will join me in cancelling their standing order?
Ann Petherick, Scarcroft Hill, York
