Government water plans are ‘incredibly muddled’ says Feargal Sharkey

ROCK legend Feargal Sharkey has castigated ministers for announcing a new plan to tackle water quality, saying it was “incredibly muddled” and lacking new ideas.

He told GB News: “It is just an incredibly muddled, confusing, rejigging, re-appraisal, re-presenting – it is the third plan in the last six months.

“When it comes to wet wipes, I think that’s the third time they’ve said they’re going to ban wet wipes in the last five years, but that does not include the time in 2021 when they said they went to the ban wet wipes.

“The £1.6 billion investment – well, does that override the £3.1 billion pound investment that was announced last August, or a £2.7 billion investment before that, or the £12 billion announcement before that?”

In a discussion with Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner, he said: “The unlimited fines? You may remember, it was a month before Christmas that was going to be £250 million.

“In January, the chairman of the Environment Agency said that was crazy, in a kind of ‘the Government’s completely lost their mind’ kind of a way.

“The Secretary of State in February said that was disproportionate, and here we are a matter of days later…£250 million has become unlimited fines.

“They’ve always had the power in the first place, for 30 years to fine a water company up to 10% of its annual turnover. You want to guess how many times they’ve used that power in the last 30 years? Once.”

He said he became involved in campaigning for better water quality because he is a keen fly-fisherman and backed his local club in a dispute with the Environment Agency.

On sewage discharges, Feargal said: “If you take it over the last three years, you’re looking at a grand total of 7.4 million hours on over 1 million separate occasions.

“I laugh even saying that myself, it seems so ridiculous…I know there were 1,500 separate occasions last year when sewage was dumped onto Blue Flag beaches.

“It’s Easter, people are taking their kids to the seaside, and water companies are dumping sewage onto those beaches.”

Asked by Andrew Pierce if he would win in the sea in the UK, he said: “Actually, I can quote you the chief executive, the former chief executive of the Environment Agency, who retired three days ago.

“When he was asked if he would swim in any river in this country, his response was ‘he would be cautious’ – that’s coming from the chief executive of the government agency charged with looking after them.”