In December Exeter Labour for a Green New Deal together with the Exeter University Labour Society hosted a public event on water in Exeter city centre. The event ‘Our Water: From the City to the Sea’ at Positive Lights Project venue. It involved community groups, activists and politicians who have been campaigning for cleaner water.
Prior to the panel discussion starting the packed venue hosted a variety of stalls including Exeter University Labour Society, Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future, Climate Hub, Exeter Science Centre and Friends of the Earth.
Kicking off the panel discussion chaired by Exeter Labour Women’s Officer Helen Dallimore, Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Exeter, Steve Race shared the experience of his friend who ended up in hospital with an infection after wild swimming in Britain. Race spoke about what the Government needs to do to nurse our waterways back to health and said “the state of our rivers and our seas is a disgrace. It’s an absolute travesty.”
Nationally, Labour have committed to clean up the water industry- preventing raw sewage being dumped into British rivers and coastal waters, ensuring mandatory sewage outlet monitoring and automatic fines
Jo Bradley from Stormwater Shepherds brought an expert opinion to the event with her more than 30 years experience in environment protection. She broadened the conversation and shared,“it’s not just about sewage. Agricultural run off, water management on farms, and urban run off are also problems”. She discussed the lack of regulation: “We’ve done nothing.”
Councillor Martin Pearce, Labour Exeter City Councillor for Communities and Homelessness, discussed the balance that needs to be sought when looking at developments near water in the city. “We need development, we need to build houses, but we also need to be careful of phosphates and harming the beautiful landscape that’s around us and the water that we need.”
Luke Pollard, Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, a self professed ‘water nerd’ shared about his longstanding campaign for better water quality in Plymouth and his aim to make the climate debate more accessible. He explained the importance of water quality to capture the interest of the public on the climate debate but also to our ecosystem, “If we don’t take action to improve our water quality we will lose fragile ecosystems in the near future.”
Councillor Ruth Williams, Labour Exeter City Councillor for Recycling, Waste Management and Waterways, explained how wide the City Councils work on our waterways reaches. As lead councillor for waterways within the city council, a member of Exeter Quay and Canal Trust as well as the Harbour Board she has been working with partners such as the Exeter Port Authority to improve safety and regulation on waters from Exeter quay all the way to Exmouth. Part of this work is seeking a Harbour Revision Order to give the local authority legal powers to instruct owners to remove unseaworthy vessels from Exeter’s waterways.
Ruth shared the recent example of swift action to avoid a major pollution scare at Exeter Canal when an old fishing boat broke up and sunk. Harbour Patroller Kevin Pearson was on the scene within ten minutes of a member of the public reporting the incident to the out-of-hours control room and as a result a potential ecological disaster was averted.
Nationally, Labour have committed to clean up the water industry- preventing raw sewage being dumped into British rivers and coastal waters, ensuring mandatory sewage outlet monitoring and automatic fines for discharges along with a whole host of other policies.