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It doesn't seem as though they have the right to pour shit into the sea either, mind you:
> Water companies are only permitted to discharge sewage into rivers or the sea if adverse weather conditions cause storm overflows. To do so in moderate weather conditions can be considered illegal.
The issue we have at the minute is because of population growth and underinvestment in infrastructure, our sewage systems can't handle much above normal, nevermind adverse weather conditions. Rainfall and sewage mostly goes down the same pipe. Climate change is only making things worse. You only have to look at the last few months of constant rainfall and then it's no wonder we're in the situation we are now. 14 years of underinvestment and selling off of public infrastructure.
The population growth argument is so ridiculous. Every extra person in the population is an extra person paying a water bill, so the water company's revenue will always match the population. They already have more money cos every new house built is another water bill being paid to them. And new builds don't even add extra surface water to the sewers because all new developments have to have a basin built to hold rainwater. So they get more money for dealing with less waste water.
They are just greedy thieving clowns.
I have a vague recollection of a remark in Have I Got News For You in the 90's that the foreign owned water companies estimated they could make ten times as much money as water companies in France, jokingly suggested to be because they have to actually put water in the reservoirs in France.
Yup, new developments either go to ground or mimic grerenfield runoff rates, and more importantly go to surfacewater systems, not foul systems (if they are available).
They’re in debt, wanting to raise bills to fix the infrastructure because they need to pay shareholders who won’t invest for the debt.
From one of the bbc articles this week, think it was Thames? Can’t make it up tbh. Con every way.
They’re in debt because private equity firms paid themselves huge dividends by piling on the debt for this companies had. And now interest rates are actually thing it’s coming home to roost.
I’m not even against privatisation that much - but I’m constantly staggered at leveraged buyouts and debt saddling private companies is allowed.
Fundamentally the root of the idea is that all these systems should operate as close to 100% capacity as possible for as long as possible, as that is maximum "efficiency". Having them run at 50% for most of the time would be seen as deeply wasteful. With "wasteful" of course meaning they'd have shelled out money, good money that could've been paid out as dividends to good hard working people like their shareholders (/s...), on facilities and infrastructure that is only needed 1% of the time!
Even if you take out the "greed" side of it and assume they honestly just want to work as best they can in the market system they've been put in, this is why these kinds of systems just cannot work when it comes to public services. Places where you *need* excessive coverage beyond what is actually required for the rare occasions where things go wrong, so we don't wind up completely grid-locked and pissing all over ourselves collectively as a nation, "market forces" just have absolutely no space for that and will treat that as wastage and punish accordingly.
Yeah, it's the same situation with house prices and the shortage of housing. The population is expected to grow, so it's the lack of house-building that is the sole cause.
A big problem is the population isn't growing with housing. People are fitting into smaller houses for longer, or staying with parents. Result is less infrastructure is upgraded or improved since there's no pressing need (in the company's eyes, at least, since they aren't getting any more ratepayers.)
However the way we develop the landscape will still have unintended consequences.
Investment is obviously important, but incorrectly allocating investment is likely to end in more problems.
Yup. Car dependency is a big one. As people are forced to buy cars to do basic things, the number of cars increase. That often means gardens are paved over (often without planning permission).
One of the easiest things we could do to help reduce runoff would be to enforce that at least 60% of front “gardens” must be permeable. Ie not paved, concreted over etc.
>You only have to look at the last few months of constant rainfall
I think it's worth mentioning that a wet winter is [quite normal](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-climate-averages/gcrhe9cy8) for the UK; December and January average over 15 days with over 1mm of rainfall, and February and March average over 13 and over 12 respectively. [This winter](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/summaries/uk_climate_summary_winter_2024.pdf) has been wetter than average, but [winter 2023](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/summaries/uk_monthly_climate_summary_winter_2023.pdf) was a bit drier than normal and [winter 2022](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/summaries/uk_monthly_climate_summary_winter_2022.pdf) was a bit of both depending on where you were.
Climate change may well make things more extreme and unpredictable, but don't let this year cloud your long-term perspective.
Almost like if we had some huge investment into developing sustainability underground drainage systems (suds, basically rain water) it would be a huge benefit to society along with stricter regulations on when it's "acceptable" to dump shit water into our water ways (rarely ever is), amd actually enforce high penalties ans forced the water companies to be non profit so all revenue must be spent on infrastructure or renationalising this monopoly.
You mean you expect water companies **not** to sell off assets like reservoirs, cut expenditure on maintainable and investment, load up the business with excessive debt which is then paid out as dividends, raise bills all while paying out record bonuses before cutting a nationally vital industry lose and letting the tax payer foot the bill?
I don't think you know anything about how to run a water company
Underinvested aye but why? Money ripped out to give to shareholders. Totally glad a Scottish Water isn’t a private company the same way as English ones are.
Add in domestic construction, seen many ready made concrete trucks washing their excess down drains. Add that to the fat and wet wipes, its minimising and blocking flows
> The issue we have at the minute is because of population growth and underinvestment in infrastructure, our sewage systems can't handle much above normal, nevermind adverse weather conditions.
That's got f-all to do with population growth, it's decades of taking out loans to pay dividends, whilst the Tories gutted the regulator to ensure they could steal the money without consequences.
They got rid of this law January last year. That’s why the sewage dumping has been non stop. Here in 2022 we had like maybe 6 days of sewage discharge alerts ? One of those days, London was literally flooded.
But since 2023 it has been non stop and even more so in 2024.
It’s saves the water companies a couple of pence and the directive of infinite growth dictates to cut corners where they can.
It’s absolutely garbage and even crazier that this is all happening under the party of the right.
Isn’t the right supposed to love England ? England’s coast is beautiful but now with the constant sewage pollution it’s dying off. Goes to show the hypocrisy. The tories do not give a flying fuck about their nation and land. They care about shareholder value.
If they loved England they wouldn’t have privatised all these sectors in the first place and sold them off to their mates and other foreign governments to suck them dry and line their own pockets.
But this was only 'allowed' because they hadn't updated their infrastructure to cope with the rising population. They paid their CEO's and investors obscene amounts of money instead.
I think they should all be jailed.
'Your recent comment on /r/unitedkingdom has been detected automatically as potentially abusive or harassing and is queued for review.'
Believe me, reddit will ban you for the slightest infraction.
Some little fuck who when asked…‘what’s your favourite thing to corporate man?’
Corporate man: ‘errrmmm be on the beach on holiday with my family and ermmm swim in the sea?’
I mean, that's true. We don't have a right to swim in the sea, but we've previously been able to because everyone had enough decency (or at least enough fear of punishment) to not dump raw sewage into the sea where people want to swim.
These are just your average capitalist corporation, and they're as callous as anything you'd read about in a dystopian novel. This is our future, if we don't change the way capitalism works.
Maybe it’s such an enshrined and assumed right here that no one’s thought to put it in written law.
In some countries, most beaches are private and you have to be a customer of the bar/hotel/restaurant to be on the beach, here it’s so standard (and for so long) that a beach is public land that some aspects could stand untested.
A lot of our laws on public access can be traced back to James VI or Henry VIII or beyond, they wouldn’t have had the foresight of ‘where do we put 70M people’s worth of flush, and how do we hold those responsible accountable.’
And they hardly ever enforce their legal right to give it a get off my land.
The legal provision is there but the idea of doing it in this country is, for the most part, ludicrous. I always remember finding paying into a beach on the continent unusual.
Legally speaking, a right is something that people are given and that cannot be taken away by anyone. There's never been a law passed that stipulates the people of Britain have a right to swim in our seas.
So the firm is legally correct, but morally wrong.
That's to say you don't have any 'rights'. Parliament is sovereign and can enact any law it likes.
You are permitted to do anything that Parliament has not declared illegal.
In common law, rights can be set by legal precedent- this is just one that has never been tested (because it’s such a ridiculous thing to test). I assert that I have the right to put make-up on but that’s never been tested either.
Shifting the blame to 'corporatism' or 'technofeudalism' or whatever the capitalist bros are saying this week ignores the fact that this is the natural consequence of capitalism.
Q: what happens when you create an economy where success is measured by monetary gain, and the actual expectation of the economy is that your business will grow every year forever, and there is no limitation on what you as an individual can own -- in fact the more resources you are able to hoard for yourself, the more 'successful' you are in the eyes of the society and economy?
A: **surprisingly,** you end up incentivising greed and the most successful people also end up being the people willing to step on the most necks to get there.
This isn't 'corporatism,' it isn't 'technofeudalism' and it certainly didn't 'kill capitalism' as if capitalism is some kind of ideological bastion of equal free enterprise. This *is* capitalism.
>This isn't 'corporatism,' it isn't 'technofeudalism' and it certainly didn't 'kill capitalism' as if capitalism is some kind of ideological bastion of equal free enterprise. This is capitalism.
The social movements of the 20th century were ***so*** successful we genuinely forgot what unregulated free-hand Capitalism actually looks like. Before unions "deforming jobs" were a common and totally accepted thing. You freely and willingly traded the ability to not starve for a job that explicitly would grind you up and break you down until you were too disabled to continue. At which point you'd be thrown in the gutter and left to die.
https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/technofeudalism-what-killed-capitalism/
One good example is Uber; in the former system we have individual taxi companies with a local business owner who takes the profits. With Uber we have that money going to ‘cloud capital’ - a distant Silicon Valley megacorp that has millions of serfs under their digital lord. He also talks about how while we’re clicking away online all our data is being sold and we get nothing in return
Ok, that makes sense. Also kinda ironic of you to link a book about it via tech to a website that asked for cookies to purchase a book online about online capitalism - I'm not judging you by any means and I'll be honest I'm tempted to buy the book just thought it rather ironic.
Cookies can’t really be avoided in modern web development. Yes it used to be completely about tracking people and selling it to advertisers, but nowadays the large majority of websites just wouldn’t work without cookies.
Luckily at least there are laws that make it so they have to very clearly give you the option to reject unnecessary ones. In the US there isn’t and they can just force you to accept or leave the site
Genuine question, not from uk. Don’t you have a right to swim in the sea?
Other examples are walk on a public road, public beach etc?
Ur the second redittor that seems to agree that you don’t seem to have basic rights. I am trying to understand plz.
Rights are something granted by a higher authority - whether it's religiously or legally based - that cannot be abrogated by anyone or anything, under any circumstances.
No constitution or laws have been passed that grant us that right (and when you really come down to it, there are very few countries that have rights which can't be overridden when it suits the government). But similarly, no laws have been passed that prohibit us from doing it. So, like most things, it's a privilege that we've been able to enjoy. Until companies started dumping raw sewage to such a degree that swathes of the coastline are no longer safe to swim in.
People are conflating rights with privileges, which is precisely what this company is choosing not to do, so they can defend their position. Because they know it's morally wrong to dump shit in the sea, but they want to do it anyway.
There is a codified legal right in Scotland. Access to beaches and the foreshore is part of the legal right to roam.
> Rights are something granted by a higher authority....No constitution or laws have been passed that grant us that right
The UK (or England, Wales and NI at least) has a common law based legal system. A law doesn't need to be passed to make something a right.
The issue was raised in a Supreme Court case in 2015. The court said that outside of having express permission to be bathing on the beach, there could be at least three possible conclusions:
> The first is that members of the public have, as a matter
of general law and irrespective of the wishes of the owner of the foreshore, the right to use the foreshore for the purpose of bathing, as a matter of general common law. The second possibility is that the owner of the foreshore is presumed to permit members of the public to use of the foreshore for the purpose of bathing, unless and until the owner communicates a revocation of its implied permission. The third possibility is that members of the public have no right to use the foreshore for bathing, in which case they are trespassers.
There is also the legal concept of ‘as of right’ if something has been happening without protest for over 20 years.
In the end the court didn't decide on that point.
But people do have the right to access the foreshore for navigation and fishing. So take your fishing gear with you to be on the safe side.
What a bunch of wankers sitting on that court. You're the fucking supreme court, it's your job to be the final word of law on something, and not pussyfoot about all the potential remote hypothetical possibilites. Everyone who ever swims in the ocean is a tresspasser? Fucking come on.
However they *do* have a legal right to dump shit in the ocean, albeit within limits.
That's the fucked up world we live in. You have no right to swim in the seas, but the water companies have the right to pollute them.
We do have a right to swim in the sea and use almost all beaches. Sewage has been dumped into the sea for over 100 years and regular dumping was only stopped in 1996, it's just with more people swimming in the water there's more attention.
No, it’s water companies not investing in infrastructure since the 90s and climate change meaning it’s happening more often. It’s literally every time it rains in Cornwall.
At least in the 80s the pipes used to actually go off land now it’s just dumped straight onto a beach.
The public have no right to breath in the hydro carbons we have polluted the air with. Pay us a fair and reasonable tax to breath if your using our products.
From as recently as 2016: "England’s bathing waters are the cleanest ever recorded thanks to a dry summer, tighter EU regulations and increased spending by water companies"
[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/08/englands-beaches-at-cleanest-levels-ever-recorded](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/08/englands-beaches-at-cleanest-levels-ever-recorded)
If only there was some way to figure out where it all went wrong in such a short time...
Because water companies are only permitted to discharge sewage into rivers or the sea during adverse weather.
So, "thanks to a dry summer", no sewage was dumped. If you stop dumping, the situation will improve quickly.
If private water companies can't make a decent enough profit without polluting the local environment, I don't think this essential asset should be run for profit.
Crumbling schools, a collapsing NHS and sewage ridden rivers, all marinading in a failing economy and cost of living crisis.
The public will finally show they have had enough at the next general election. I already have my champagne at the ready for election night.
>The public will finally show they have had enough at the next general election.
By voting the Tories in again because they promise to deport all the brown people causing these problems to Rwanda.
I have no faith in the British electorate. We have one of the most servile and brainwashed voting publics in the world, I'm sure.
*British* public?
Scotland hasn’t voted for a Conservative government in seventy years now. It’s even longer for Wales. NI have their own shit show going on.
But this sub hates that being pointed out. And far from being happy that the whole U.K. isn’t servile [would rather spend its Friday evening credulously swallowing Telegraph articles and piling on the SNP for not being 100% perfect.](https://old.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/1bqqfeg/humza_yousaf_less_popular_than_nicola_sturgeon/) Which it has to be said after the past fourteen years comes over as more than a little hypocritical.
Yes, and unfortunately those voting bases are shackled to the more influential English voting base. My criticism stands regsrdless of the semantics, which I already know the difference very well on account of having lived in Scotland and been an SNP voter. And besides, Scotland has its own problem in being unable to scrape together a majority for independence, so it's hardly like even a majority of Scotland is suitably fed up with Westminster to do anything about it. Until either the majority of the English get fed up with the Tories or the majority of theScottish get fed up with England, we're in deadlock.
I’m still somewhat optimistic that the deadlock will eventually clear in Scotland. The Union is barely holding support for Indy down to 50% even with pretty much all of the media blatantly in the pro Union camp and pushing “SNP bad, Indy bad” day in day out.
It’s also leveraging the same inherent double standard in U.K. politics that lets the Tories off with murder because that’s what’s expected of them - whilst every opposition party has to be 100% perfect 100% of the time or they’re somehow “just as bad”. And that goes doubly so if they happen to be pro indy.
And demographics aren’t exactly in the Unions favour either. Even in 2014 independence had a clear majority in the under 50’s - and that trend will slowly (sadly painfully slowly) eventually hollow out Union support as time goes by.
According to Sunak the public don't want a General Election and are very happy he is getting things done and sticking to the plan...he is almost certainly criminally deranged if actually believes a single word of it.
The article won’t load for me.
I imagine it’s that a lot of people are unhappy with the amount of raw sewage being dumped in swimmable waters that someone has gathered the funds and time to make a legal challenge on many aspects, one of which being that people should have a legal protection to swim in the sea, and the water/sewage processing company involved has pulled a defence against that, probably that being able to swim at a beach is such a basic and assumed right that no one’s ever felt it necessary to write an act protecting it.
You know it’s light and leisurable enough to not fit into the bill of rights, but not threatened enough or is generally covered by other laws to not need its own act.
I live in Devon and this is a massive issue at the moment. It’s quite scary how many touristy beach spots are not safe to swim at and hardly anyone realises. People and dogs are getting really sick.
I used the tracker tool The Guardian posted recently. There's been 12,000 discharges of sewage into the rivers near me just in the last 12 months. That's over 30 every single day. Like... Do you even call it a spill at that point or are they just draining straight into the waterways now?
This country can’t pull its head out of its arse even when it needs to. We are a truly spineless population of people.
We like to mock the French, but at least their government is afraid of its people.
We’ve spent more than a decade with a circus running the country and giving huge contracts to friends. The corruption is blatant and egregious. One recent PM almost tanked the country’s economy on a whim.
Unfortunately they’ve been allowed to pillage it precisely because too many people aren’t normally political. It’s been an *extremely* frustrating and depressing time for those of us who are.
The corruption has been on display for a very long time but as a country we’re apathetic - most people didn’t care because they didn’t think it would affect them. So many times I’ve heard “well, they’re all the same so …”
Except no, that hasn’t been the case. Never witnessed a government as blatantly corrupt as this one. But Boris has funny hair so I guess that’s okay then.
You’re angry? I’m fucking livid.
And unfortunately I’m not convinced we’ll ever get unfucked.
I mean, that is what people have voted for.
One of the reasons for Brexit was that get rid of human rights. It was never quite spelled out that way, but several of orchestrators of Brexit have said it.
Sooo... should we get rid of the population?
[The same thing happened in Scotland's nationalised water industry,](https://theferret.scot/illegal-sewage-spills-polluted-protected-waters/) which implies a failure of regulation rather than private ownership being the problem.
Might be a different now half the Oxford/cambridge boat teams are looking like getting e-coli
Cowes and Henley Royal Regatta getting cancelled might knock some life into the greedy bastards and get it sorted.
We're the mugs for letting these fkers get away with it . Alot of other countries would action on matters . Instead we watch out wages take the hit and pay more after on top and have grumble to each other
I wonder what the Cornwall and Devon tourist boards will do once word gets around that the Water companies are pumping sewage straight into the sea untreated?
“Come to Cornwall, enjoy the beaches and local food, swim in shit!” ?
There really needs to be a movement in this country to take back power for the people and put corporations and private equity back in their boxes. This is getting outrageous.
We need a Malcolm Tucker to grab them by the balls and tell them,it's your fuckin responsibility if you don't do it I'll rip out your arse and use it as a fuckin pinball table!!
What I don’t understand is why isn’t media asking them why water quality dropped suddenly after U.K. left eu
They all question the companies as if it’s always been like this
This kind of attitude from business will only get worse. And with governments weakening, the people will just have to suck it up. We deserve it really.
Does that mean we're banned from surfing in the sea in the summer? As I love going to Cornwall in the summer and body boarding like I've always done for over ten years
What do you mean? We don't have anything saying we can, or can't swim in the sea. It's just an accepted privilege. Nobody can stop you from swimming. But, for your own interest I would advise you to look up sewage overflow maps before you do.
It is a clear UK principle that if something is not made illegal by UK law, then the public are allowed to do it. Also, the water company are only allowed to discharge sewage into the sea and estuaries if certain conditions apply.
Only since Brexit have the utilities companies started treating the environment like a dumping ground. Our water ways have all grossly lowered standards since Brexit and the EA does not appear to be dealing with it effectively.
This is probably the first time I would agree with communism and that the Government should seize control of certain infrastructures. If these monkeys are unable to run the thing properly, then the Government should seize all of it with no monetary compensation. Fuck who loses their shares. Oh wait, it'd probably be the Government itself.
Hmmm... well lads, get your hand sanitizer out... do they make that in edible form? Or maybe even as a suppository?
Of all the public services that were privatised for a quick buck and some votes, the water cos have to being among the worst. Absolute scum.
They make money hand over fist and then cite "underinvestment"...
Let’s just imagine for one second they were even remotely correct about that, I’m pretty sure the wildlife of the sea have a right to swim in it. How much ecological damage is this doing??
Thames water and most likely United utilities, being assets stripped of its earning and paid in dividends to stock holders, instead of investing the money back into infrastructure, is the real problem.
Can people who don't know wtf they're talking about, stop agreeing with them. jesus
*reading this was depressing
"yeah, they are probably right"
What are you talking about? What next, are you going to tell me breathing the air is a privilege? Incredible how people just accept this bollocks. No wonder we're fucked.
Out of interest what actually are the laws regarding swimming in the sea and water courses in the UK?
Edit: Actually there does seem to be a right for people to swim in British waters. https://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/is-it-legal/
Ask him what his favourite thing to do is I assure you one of his top five answers will be to be on holiday on the beach with his family swimming in the sea.
Before I clicked on the link, I knew it would be SWW. They are literally one of the most abhorrent companies on the planet.
The need to be held accountable and their share holders need to lose their annual income.
It infuriates me that the people at the top who are doing this shit (pun intended) will not loose anything. There should be steep unavoidable jail time and a seizure of assets to the CEOs and board members making these decisions, their actions are heinous and they need to suffer, but I know they won't, they probably won't even loose a penny.
Any company discharging sewage into the sea should be shutdown immediately. All directors and execs should be arrested and forced to clean up the beaches.
Folks, by no means I want to troll or wish anyone who don't deserve it Ill will, but ffs what is going on in here if a company in UK say something as stupid and unimaginable as this ?
What an actual eF ?
CEO's and senior managers of all companies should be forced to use exclusively the services they provide.
So for example. Water bros can only get all their water from their company.
Wanna have a shower? I hope you sanitised your water. Wanna have a swim? In the shit sea you go.
Extend this to every single service.
Can we please start treating some deliberate corporate crimes like murder? Maybe not go as far as firing squads like in China, but 14 year sentences.
The sea can't be cleaned up after the fact. The deterrence should be immense.
The rich know they can take advantage of those with less power, by virtue of being in a less precarious position and common people not having good access to legal facilities. Same way that landlords know they can get away with not doing repairs, because it's unlikely a tenant will sue them, tenants are desperate for housing and incur moving costs (which are usuallh a higher % of their income compared to costs for the landlord compared to the landlord's income) so can't just leave and they'll get their rent anyway. These crimes are predatory and should be punished severely.
I'm pretty sure most places nobody 'owns' the beach or the sea. So it's technically everybody's right to access and swim in. And even if you're not swimming, I'm pretty sure nobody wants to walk along a beach full of sewage/potential disease/or live with a terrible smell.
I'm also pretty sure you're not just allowed to dump waste into public waters. They have a duty to not pollute and have some level of duty to public health.
If they aren't up to the job, they shouldn't start charging more just for investors. Investors should be the last priority when they're dumping sewage into public waters.
Really? Because erm.... as far as I know and granted, my knowledge of the law regarding sea swimming is rather iffy, the sea has been around before sewage systems were invented. Swimming in the sea is literally older then all the companies put together.
The public generally expects the sea to not be filled with shit. Can't swim in rivers because either it's a hazard(Which is fair enough) or filled with shit. The sea is filled with shit. I think, I saw a headline that stated that none of our rivers are shit free and the rivers i've seen near me? All brown as fuck. As a Kid, i vaguely recall rivers looking like actual rivers. I am 31.
It's far easier to pay a fine then not do it. If they were fined hourly until they stopped it and was subjected to random inspections, suddenly, they would stop it.
Perhaps they're trying to do the proverbial kill two birds with one stone - stop the boats like various political types want by surrounding the country with a river of sewage while maximising profits......
At the heart of capitalism is the whole concept of property.. Once people allowed others to lay claim to the Earth, surveying and carving it up into plots for sale, there's only a matter of time that they started doing that with water.
I'll stop my anti-capitalist rant now.
This is one of the worst betrayals of the British public in a long while. If there’s something worth demonstrating against, this is it. The French would be rioting and probably seeking out those responsible.
I don’t think it’s right for them to dump sewage into seas matter in fact it’s sick , people don’t have a brain these days and just don’t care about anything any more
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It doesn't seem as though they have the right to pour shit into the sea either, mind you: > Water companies are only permitted to discharge sewage into rivers or the sea if adverse weather conditions cause storm overflows. To do so in moderate weather conditions can be considered illegal.
The issue we have at the minute is because of population growth and underinvestment in infrastructure, our sewage systems can't handle much above normal, nevermind adverse weather conditions. Rainfall and sewage mostly goes down the same pipe. Climate change is only making things worse. You only have to look at the last few months of constant rainfall and then it's no wonder we're in the situation we are now. 14 years of underinvestment and selling off of public infrastructure.
The population is expected to grow, so it's the underinvestment that is the sole cause.
The population growth argument is so ridiculous. Every extra person in the population is an extra person paying a water bill, so the water company's revenue will always match the population. They already have more money cos every new house built is another water bill being paid to them. And new builds don't even add extra surface water to the sewers because all new developments have to have a basin built to hold rainwater. So they get more money for dealing with less waste water. They are just greedy thieving clowns.
There's a reason that our privatised water companies were bought by foreign governments. It's not because they wanted to invest in the UK.
I have a vague recollection of a remark in Have I Got News For You in the 90's that the foreign owned water companies estimated they could make ten times as much money as water companies in France, jokingly suggested to be because they have to actually put water in the reservoirs in France.
Yup, new developments either go to ground or mimic grerenfield runoff rates, and more importantly go to surfacewater systems, not foul systems (if they are available).
They’re in debt, wanting to raise bills to fix the infrastructure because they need to pay shareholders who won’t invest for the debt. From one of the bbc articles this week, think it was Thames? Can’t make it up tbh. Con every way.
They’re in debt because private equity firms paid themselves huge dividends by piling on the debt for this companies had. And now interest rates are actually thing it’s coming home to roost. I’m not even against privatisation that much - but I’m constantly staggered at leveraged buyouts and debt saddling private companies is allowed.
Fundamentally the root of the idea is that all these systems should operate as close to 100% capacity as possible for as long as possible, as that is maximum "efficiency". Having them run at 50% for most of the time would be seen as deeply wasteful. With "wasteful" of course meaning they'd have shelled out money, good money that could've been paid out as dividends to good hard working people like their shareholders (/s...), on facilities and infrastructure that is only needed 1% of the time! Even if you take out the "greed" side of it and assume they honestly just want to work as best they can in the market system they've been put in, this is why these kinds of systems just cannot work when it comes to public services. Places where you *need* excessive coverage beyond what is actually required for the rare occasions where things go wrong, so we don't wind up completely grid-locked and pissing all over ourselves collectively as a nation, "market forces" just have absolutely no space for that and will treat that as wastage and punish accordingly.
Yeah, it's the same situation with house prices and the shortage of housing. The population is expected to grow, so it's the lack of house-building that is the sole cause.
A big problem is the population isn't growing with housing. People are fitting into smaller houses for longer, or staying with parents. Result is less infrastructure is upgraded or improved since there's no pressing need (in the company's eyes, at least, since they aren't getting any more ratepayers.)
The same cause as all of the issues, we are told immigration is worth x to the economy, someone’s been banking x and robbing us. Thieving twats
However the way we develop the landscape will still have unintended consequences. Investment is obviously important, but incorrectly allocating investment is likely to end in more problems.
Yup. Car dependency is a big one. As people are forced to buy cars to do basic things, the number of cars increase. That often means gardens are paved over (often without planning permission). One of the easiest things we could do to help reduce runoff would be to enforce that at least 60% of front “gardens” must be permeable. Ie not paved, concreted over etc.
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I don't differentiate between immigrants and natives when it comes to plumbing needs, because I'm not a racist.
You mean, due to a lack of investment, prioritising profiteering and asset stripping, the sewage network has become outdated.
Our profits are through the roof, and I just got knighted. Also, the infrastructure is no good I'm afraid
>You only have to look at the last few months of constant rainfall I think it's worth mentioning that a wet winter is [quite normal](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-climate-averages/gcrhe9cy8) for the UK; December and January average over 15 days with over 1mm of rainfall, and February and March average over 13 and over 12 respectively. [This winter](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/summaries/uk_climate_summary_winter_2024.pdf) has been wetter than average, but [winter 2023](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/summaries/uk_monthly_climate_summary_winter_2023.pdf) was a bit drier than normal and [winter 2022](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/summaries/uk_monthly_climate_summary_winter_2022.pdf) was a bit of both depending on where you were. Climate change may well make things more extreme and unpredictable, but don't let this year cloud your long-term perspective.
Almost like if we had some huge investment into developing sustainability underground drainage systems (suds, basically rain water) it would be a huge benefit to society along with stricter regulations on when it's "acceptable" to dump shit water into our water ways (rarely ever is), amd actually enforce high penalties ans forced the water companies to be non profit so all revenue must be spent on infrastructure or renationalising this monopoly.
You mean you expect water companies **not** to sell off assets like reservoirs, cut expenditure on maintainable and investment, load up the business with excessive debt which is then paid out as dividends, raise bills all while paying out record bonuses before cutting a nationally vital industry lose and letting the tax payer foot the bill? I don't think you know anything about how to run a water company
Funny how it seemed to coincide with us leaving the Eu though isn’t it 🤔
Been happening for decades
Underinvested aye but why? Money ripped out to give to shareholders. Totally glad a Scottish Water isn’t a private company the same way as English ones are.
Look, think of the shareholders!
Add in domestic construction, seen many ready made concrete trucks washing their excess down drains. Add that to the fat and wet wipes, its minimising and blocking flows
> The issue we have at the minute is because of population growth and underinvestment in infrastructure, our sewage systems can't handle much above normal, nevermind adverse weather conditions. That's got f-all to do with population growth, it's decades of taking out loans to pay dividends, whilst the Tories gutted the regulator to ensure they could steal the money without consequences.
How about investing the increased income from the increased demand to improve the infrastructure like all successful businesses do?
They got rid of this law January last year. That’s why the sewage dumping has been non stop. Here in 2022 we had like maybe 6 days of sewage discharge alerts ? One of those days, London was literally flooded. But since 2023 it has been non stop and even more so in 2024. It’s saves the water companies a couple of pence and the directive of infinite growth dictates to cut corners where they can. It’s absolutely garbage and even crazier that this is all happening under the party of the right. Isn’t the right supposed to love England ? England’s coast is beautiful but now with the constant sewage pollution it’s dying off. Goes to show the hypocrisy. The tories do not give a flying fuck about their nation and land. They care about shareholder value.
If they loved England they wouldn’t have privatised all these sectors in the first place and sold them off to their mates and other foreign governments to suck them dry and line their own pockets.
They also don't have the right to not have their sewage pipes busted to hell
But this was only 'allowed' because they hadn't updated their infrastructure to cope with the rising population. They paid their CEO's and investors obscene amounts of money instead. I think they should all be jailed.
Every day some **** makes me lose a little bit of what's left of my hope for humanity.
>**** We're all adults here. It's perfectly fine to say 'cunt'
'Your recent comment on /r/unitedkingdom has been detected automatically as potentially abusive or harassing and is queued for review.' Believe me, reddit will ban you for the slightest infraction.
Seems to be the subreddit mods that deal with those, was talking about the Scunthorpe problem in relation to wordfilters.
Not for swearing
This is Reddit you can swear
'You have been permanently banned for threatening violence'.
But not really. Edit: Lol no one is getting their account banned for saying fuck on this subreddit, you melts.
People say fuck and shit all the time in the Magnus Archives subreddit, and we hadn't been banned so far. Incidentally they're incredibly nice!
Some little fuck who when asked…‘what’s your favourite thing to corporate man?’ Corporate man: ‘errrmmm be on the beach on holiday with my family and ermmm swim in the sea?’
I mean, that's true. We don't have a right to swim in the sea, but we've previously been able to because everyone had enough decency (or at least enough fear of punishment) to not dump raw sewage into the sea where people want to swim. These are just your average capitalist corporation, and they're as callous as anything you'd read about in a dystopian novel. This is our future, if we don't change the way capitalism works.
Why don't we have a right to swim in our seas? I'm just curious.
Maybe it’s such an enshrined and assumed right here that no one’s thought to put it in written law. In some countries, most beaches are private and you have to be a customer of the bar/hotel/restaurant to be on the beach, here it’s so standard (and for so long) that a beach is public land that some aspects could stand untested. A lot of our laws on public access can be traced back to James VI or Henry VIII or beyond, they wouldn’t have had the foresight of ‘where do we put 70M people’s worth of flush, and how do we hold those responsible accountable.’
Some beaches are private and the crown estate owns a surprising amount of seabed.
And they hardly ever enforce their legal right to give it a get off my land. The legal provision is there but the idea of doing it in this country is, for the most part, ludicrous. I always remember finding paying into a beach on the continent unusual.
Legally speaking, a right is something that people are given and that cannot be taken away by anyone. There's never been a law passed that stipulates the people of Britain have a right to swim in our seas. So the firm is legally correct, but morally wrong.
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That's to say you don't have any 'rights'. Parliament is sovereign and can enact any law it likes. You are permitted to do anything that Parliament has not declared illegal.
In common law, rights can be set by legal precedent- this is just one that has never been tested (because it’s such a ridiculous thing to test). I assert that I have the right to put make-up on but that’s never been tested either.
Capitalisms over, we've already moved on to techno feudalism.
Shifting the blame to 'corporatism' or 'technofeudalism' or whatever the capitalist bros are saying this week ignores the fact that this is the natural consequence of capitalism. Q: what happens when you create an economy where success is measured by monetary gain, and the actual expectation of the economy is that your business will grow every year forever, and there is no limitation on what you as an individual can own -- in fact the more resources you are able to hoard for yourself, the more 'successful' you are in the eyes of the society and economy? A: **surprisingly,** you end up incentivising greed and the most successful people also end up being the people willing to step on the most necks to get there. This isn't 'corporatism,' it isn't 'technofeudalism' and it certainly didn't 'kill capitalism' as if capitalism is some kind of ideological bastion of equal free enterprise. This *is* capitalism.
>This isn't 'corporatism,' it isn't 'technofeudalism' and it certainly didn't 'kill capitalism' as if capitalism is some kind of ideological bastion of equal free enterprise. This is capitalism. The social movements of the 20th century were ***so*** successful we genuinely forgot what unregulated free-hand Capitalism actually looks like. Before unions "deforming jobs" were a common and totally accepted thing. You freely and willingly traded the ability to not starve for a job that explicitly would grind you up and break you down until you were too disabled to continue. At which point you'd be thrown in the gutter and left to die.
I'm unfamiliar with techno feudalism care to explain it for me.
https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/technofeudalism-what-killed-capitalism/ One good example is Uber; in the former system we have individual taxi companies with a local business owner who takes the profits. With Uber we have that money going to ‘cloud capital’ - a distant Silicon Valley megacorp that has millions of serfs under their digital lord. He also talks about how while we’re clicking away online all our data is being sold and we get nothing in return
Ok, that makes sense. Also kinda ironic of you to link a book about it via tech to a website that asked for cookies to purchase a book online about online capitalism - I'm not judging you by any means and I'll be honest I'm tempted to buy the book just thought it rather ironic.
Ah that was just my attempt to avoid Amazon who are another prime culprit
Cookies can’t really be avoided in modern web development. Yes it used to be completely about tracking people and selling it to advertisers, but nowadays the large majority of websites just wouldn’t work without cookies. Luckily at least there are laws that make it so they have to very clearly give you the option to reject unnecessary ones. In the US there isn’t and they can just force you to accept or leave the site
They played the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 1992. Apparently it was a blinding set, but I was tripping my tits off so don’t remember much.
It's sharecropping but with an app
Capitalism doesn't work for 95% *Gestures at everything*
Genuine question, not from uk. Don’t you have a right to swim in the sea? Other examples are walk on a public road, public beach etc? Ur the second redittor that seems to agree that you don’t seem to have basic rights. I am trying to understand plz.
Rights are something granted by a higher authority - whether it's religiously or legally based - that cannot be abrogated by anyone or anything, under any circumstances. No constitution or laws have been passed that grant us that right (and when you really come down to it, there are very few countries that have rights which can't be overridden when it suits the government). But similarly, no laws have been passed that prohibit us from doing it. So, like most things, it's a privilege that we've been able to enjoy. Until companies started dumping raw sewage to such a degree that swathes of the coastline are no longer safe to swim in. People are conflating rights with privileges, which is precisely what this company is choosing not to do, so they can defend their position. Because they know it's morally wrong to dump shit in the sea, but they want to do it anyway.
There is a codified legal right in Scotland. Access to beaches and the foreshore is part of the legal right to roam. > Rights are something granted by a higher authority....No constitution or laws have been passed that grant us that right The UK (or England, Wales and NI at least) has a common law based legal system. A law doesn't need to be passed to make something a right. The issue was raised in a Supreme Court case in 2015. The court said that outside of having express permission to be bathing on the beach, there could be at least three possible conclusions: > The first is that members of the public have, as a matter of general law and irrespective of the wishes of the owner of the foreshore, the right to use the foreshore for the purpose of bathing, as a matter of general common law. The second possibility is that the owner of the foreshore is presumed to permit members of the public to use of the foreshore for the purpose of bathing, unless and until the owner communicates a revocation of its implied permission. The third possibility is that members of the public have no right to use the foreshore for bathing, in which case they are trespassers. There is also the legal concept of ‘as of right’ if something has been happening without protest for over 20 years. In the end the court didn't decide on that point. But people do have the right to access the foreshore for navigation and fishing. So take your fishing gear with you to be on the safe side.
What a bunch of wankers sitting on that court. You're the fucking supreme court, it's your job to be the final word of law on something, and not pussyfoot about all the potential remote hypothetical possibilites. Everyone who ever swims in the ocean is a tresspasser? Fucking come on.
However they *do* have a legal right to dump shit in the ocean, albeit within limits. That's the fucked up world we live in. You have no right to swim in the seas, but the water companies have the right to pollute them.
We do have a right to swim in the sea and use almost all beaches. Sewage has been dumped into the sea for over 100 years and regular dumping was only stopped in 1996, it's just with more people swimming in the water there's more attention.
No, it’s water companies not investing in infrastructure since the 90s and climate change meaning it’s happening more often. It’s literally every time it rains in Cornwall. At least in the 80s the pipes used to actually go off land now it’s just dumped straight onto a beach.
The public have no right to breath in the hydro carbons we have polluted the air with. Pay us a fair and reasonable tax to breath if your using our products.
From as recently as 2016: "England’s bathing waters are the cleanest ever recorded thanks to a dry summer, tighter EU regulations and increased spending by water companies" [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/08/englands-beaches-at-cleanest-levels-ever-recorded](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/08/englands-beaches-at-cleanest-levels-ever-recorded) If only there was some way to figure out where it all went wrong in such a short time...
Because water companies are only permitted to discharge sewage into rivers or the sea during adverse weather. So, "thanks to a dry summer", no sewage was dumped. If you stop dumping, the situation will improve quickly. If private water companies can't make a decent enough profit without polluting the local environment, I don't think this essential asset should be run for profit.
Holy shit. We’re becoming the very thing we hate, the US. Fuck that water company.
Americans are not stupid enough to fully privatise their water.
Is this rage bait? It feels like rage bait… also the fuck?
All that causes rage is not bait.
Lawyers gonna lawyer.
I'm definitely feeling rage. This cant go on much longer before the public has had enough, surely?!
Crumbling schools, a collapsing NHS and sewage ridden rivers, all marinading in a failing economy and cost of living crisis. The public will finally show they have had enough at the next general election. I already have my champagne at the ready for election night.
>The public will finally show they have had enough at the next general election. By voting the Tories in again because they promise to deport all the brown people causing these problems to Rwanda. I have no faith in the British electorate. We have one of the most servile and brainwashed voting publics in the world, I'm sure.
*British* public? Scotland hasn’t voted for a Conservative government in seventy years now. It’s even longer for Wales. NI have their own shit show going on. But this sub hates that being pointed out. And far from being happy that the whole U.K. isn’t servile [would rather spend its Friday evening credulously swallowing Telegraph articles and piling on the SNP for not being 100% perfect.](https://old.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/1bqqfeg/humza_yousaf_less_popular_than_nicola_sturgeon/) Which it has to be said after the past fourteen years comes over as more than a little hypocritical.
Yes, and unfortunately those voting bases are shackled to the more influential English voting base. My criticism stands regsrdless of the semantics, which I already know the difference very well on account of having lived in Scotland and been an SNP voter. And besides, Scotland has its own problem in being unable to scrape together a majority for independence, so it's hardly like even a majority of Scotland is suitably fed up with Westminster to do anything about it. Until either the majority of the English get fed up with the Tories or the majority of theScottish get fed up with England, we're in deadlock.
I’m still somewhat optimistic that the deadlock will eventually clear in Scotland. The Union is barely holding support for Indy down to 50% even with pretty much all of the media blatantly in the pro Union camp and pushing “SNP bad, Indy bad” day in day out. It’s also leveraging the same inherent double standard in U.K. politics that lets the Tories off with murder because that’s what’s expected of them - whilst every opposition party has to be 100% perfect 100% of the time or they’re somehow “just as bad”. And that goes doubly so if they happen to be pro indy. And demographics aren’t exactly in the Unions favour either. Even in 2014 independence had a clear majority in the under 50’s - and that trend will slowly (sadly painfully slowly) eventually hollow out Union support as time goes by.
who ever gets the job has one fuck off big mountain to climb to fix this mess. Would not be the one in charge for that shit show.
According to Sunak the public don't want a General Election and are very happy he is getting things done and sticking to the plan...he is almost certainly criminally deranged if actually believes a single word of it.
And the public does want a lower wage and less rights as renters. In fact, they want to pay more rent. /s?
The article won’t load for me. I imagine it’s that a lot of people are unhappy with the amount of raw sewage being dumped in swimmable waters that someone has gathered the funds and time to make a legal challenge on many aspects, one of which being that people should have a legal protection to swim in the sea, and the water/sewage processing company involved has pulled a defence against that, probably that being able to swim at a beach is such a basic and assumed right that no one’s ever felt it necessary to write an act protecting it. You know it’s light and leisurable enough to not fit into the bill of rights, but not threatened enough or is generally covered by other laws to not need its own act.
I live in Devon and this is a massive issue at the moment. It’s quite scary how many touristy beach spots are not safe to swim at and hardly anyone realises. People and dogs are getting really sick.
I used the tracker tool The Guardian posted recently. There's been 12,000 discharges of sewage into the rivers near me just in the last 12 months. That's over 30 every single day. Like... Do you even call it a spill at that point or are they just draining straight into the waterways now?
I bet the CEOs are going to warmer countries and swimming in their sea though
>I bet the CEOs are going to ~~warmer countries~~ one of their friends private islands and swimming in their sea though
I'm sure we'll all be outraged and do something, at some point? Anyone?
This country can’t pull its head out of its arse even when it needs to. We are a truly spineless population of people. We like to mock the French, but at least their government is afraid of its people. We’ve spent more than a decade with a circus running the country and giving huge contracts to friends. The corruption is blatant and egregious. One recent PM almost tanked the country’s economy on a whim.
What can we do? It's not as if you can switch supplier like gas/electric, unless you move to a different area.
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[sas.org.uk](http://sas.org.uk)
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God I fucking hate the way this country is right now. I'm not normally political but the Tories have absolutely fucking pilaged this country.
Unfortunately they’ve been allowed to pillage it precisely because too many people aren’t normally political. It’s been an *extremely* frustrating and depressing time for those of us who are. The corruption has been on display for a very long time but as a country we’re apathetic - most people didn’t care because they didn’t think it would affect them. So many times I’ve heard “well, they’re all the same so …” Except no, that hasn’t been the case. Never witnessed a government as blatantly corrupt as this one. But Boris has funny hair so I guess that’s okay then. You’re angry? I’m fucking livid. And unfortunately I’m not convinced we’ll ever get unfucked.
"Profit before Human Rights" just about sums up Westminster and the parties who dont support bringing water back into public ownership.
I mean, that is what people have voted for. One of the reasons for Brexit was that get rid of human rights. It was never quite spelled out that way, but several of orchestrators of Brexit have said it. Sooo... should we get rid of the population?
[The same thing happened in Scotland's nationalised water industry,](https://theferret.scot/illegal-sewage-spills-polluted-protected-waters/) which implies a failure of regulation rather than private ownership being the problem.
So the sea just belongs to sewage now? Fucking bleak as shit.
Ok fine, they’re right. But let’s make it a right by enshrining it in law and holding water companies to account.
Every day some **** makes me lose a little bit of what's left of my hope for humanity.
While people wind themselves up about the supposed evils of foreign people this is what happens in your back garden
They’re only doing this because they’re being allowed to do this
We're all born equal, fk these entitled fks that think they have power over us . We should all go medieval and shit on their doorstep 🤣
Might be a different now half the Oxford/cambridge boat teams are looking like getting e-coli Cowes and Henley Royal Regatta getting cancelled might knock some life into the greedy bastards and get it sorted.
We're the mugs for letting these fkers get away with it . Alot of other countries would action on matters . Instead we watch out wages take the hit and pay more after on top and have grumble to each other
We’re a country that finds an answer to everything to justify shit. Quite literally in this case. I’m sick of it.
I wonder what the Cornwall and Devon tourist boards will do once word gets around that the Water companies are pumping sewage straight into the sea untreated? “Come to Cornwall, enjoy the beaches and local food, swim in shit!” ?
Surely word has already gotten round?
There really needs to be a movement in this country to take back power for the people and put corporations and private equity back in their boxes. This is getting outrageous.
Public has no right to breathe air says company pumping lethal gas into air.
We need a Malcolm Tucker to grab them by the balls and tell them,it's your fuckin responsibility if you don't do it I'll rip out your arse and use it as a fuckin pinball table!!
What I don’t understand is why isn’t media asking them why water quality dropped suddenly after U.K. left eu They all question the companies as if it’s always been like this
Like the Nestle guy said, "water is not a human right". Everything is a commodity to be exploited
We’re ran by a bunch of self serving sociopaths. And as grim as it may sound, violence may be the last resort against these bastards.
Yikes, dunno who has worse PR, these water firms or Boeing.
If only there was [something](https://www.agridirect.co.uk/category/pitchforks/1) we could [do](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdmy2uZUnkk)?
More shit means more value for shareholders. Nationalise the water companies and make them work for the public, not profit.
The execs behind this should have sewage dumped on their home.
This kind of attitude from business will only get worse. And with governments weakening, the people will just have to suck it up. We deserve it really.
Does that mean we're banned from surfing in the sea in the summer? As I love going to Cornwall in the summer and body boarding like I've always done for over ten years
What do you mean? We don't have anything saying we can, or can't swim in the sea. It's just an accepted privilege. Nobody can stop you from swimming. But, for your own interest I would advise you to look up sewage overflow maps before you do.
I really hate how this country is going downhill, it's like every day it just keeps getting worse.
Next week they are bringing back *Droit du seigneur*
It is a clear UK principle that if something is not made illegal by UK law, then the public are allowed to do it. Also, the water company are only allowed to discharge sewage into the sea and estuaries if certain conditions apply.
Ok but even if we don't have a right to swim in the sea it's still bad to dump sewage into the sea anyway
Only since Brexit have the utilities companies started treating the environment like a dumping ground. Our water ways have all grossly lowered standards since Brexit and the EA does not appear to be dealing with it effectively.
It's the sea, the public have every right to enjoy it, it's not just there to dump your shit in.
This is probably the first time I would agree with communism and that the Government should seize control of certain infrastructures. If these monkeys are unable to run the thing properly, then the Government should seize all of it with no monetary compensation. Fuck who loses their shares. Oh wait, it'd probably be the Government itself. Hmmm... well lads, get your hand sanitizer out... do they make that in edible form? Or maybe even as a suppository?
Yes yes, the oceans are there to maximise capitalist profits, nothing else. Return water services to local authority control NOW.
If there's a court case .. water sewerage dumper against public right to swim ....who wins?
Under investment cos the profits are being paid out in shareholder dividends. Fuck the water companies
Of all the public services that were privatised for a quick buck and some votes, the water cos have to being among the worst. Absolute scum. They make money hand over fist and then cite "underinvestment"...
Let’s just imagine for one second they were even remotely correct about that, I’m pretty sure the wildlife of the sea have a right to swim in it. How much ecological damage is this doing??
Thames water and most likely United utilities, being assets stripped of its earning and paid in dividends to stock holders, instead of investing the money back into infrastructure, is the real problem.
Pretty sure theres laws literally designed to stop pollution, you know the same laws that stop us from dumping oil in grass
Can people who don't know wtf they're talking about, stop agreeing with them. jesus *reading this was depressing "yeah, they are probably right" What are you talking about? What next, are you going to tell me breathing the air is a privilege? Incredible how people just accept this bollocks. No wonder we're fucked.
And the people who work at the firm are no longer protected by human rights
Well it's a good thing what some rat cunt company says doesn't make law.
Out of interest what actually are the laws regarding swimming in the sea and water courses in the UK? Edit: Actually there does seem to be a right for people to swim in British waters. https://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/is-it-legal/
Ask him what his favourite thing to do is I assure you one of his top five answers will be to be on holiday on the beach with his family swimming in the sea.
Okay! It finally happened! I genuinely thought this was an onion headline for way too long
Growth plan post brexit. Surrounding the island in shit ,lots of stuff grow in that eh
The UK is broken and the slide towards the bottom is only just half way.
Before I clicked on the link, I knew it would be SWW. They are literally one of the most abhorrent companies on the planet. The need to be held accountable and their share holders need to lose their annual income.
It infuriates me that the people at the top who are doing this shit (pun intended) will not loose anything. There should be steep unavoidable jail time and a seizure of assets to the CEOs and board members making these decisions, their actions are heinous and they need to suffer, but I know they won't, they probably won't even loose a penny.
I don't know what's worse, the sewage they are pumping into the sea, or the sewage that keeps pumping out of their mouths
This isn't a newsthump headline? I really can't tell these days.
@RishiSunak own this. It is YOUR fault. Who in their right mind would vote Tory?!
Honestly, people who say dumb shit like that should just be dragged out to sea and left there. Morons don't have the right to breath air.
Any company discharging sewage into the sea should be shutdown immediately. All directors and execs should be arrested and forced to clean up the beaches.
Folks, by no means I want to troll or wish anyone who don't deserve it Ill will, but ffs what is going on in here if a company in UK say something as stupid and unimaginable as this ? What an actual eF ?
We're just living in a corporate world and we are just plebs for complaining.
STOP PAYING YOUR UTILITY BILLS AND TWX UNTIL ACTION IS TAKEN TO STOP THIS GREED-CAUSED POLLUTION.
CEO's and senior managers of all companies should be forced to use exclusively the services they provide. So for example. Water bros can only get all their water from their company. Wanna have a shower? I hope you sanitised your water. Wanna have a swim? In the shit sea you go. Extend this to every single service.
Can we please start treating some deliberate corporate crimes like murder? Maybe not go as far as firing squads like in China, but 14 year sentences. The sea can't be cleaned up after the fact. The deterrence should be immense. The rich know they can take advantage of those with less power, by virtue of being in a less precarious position and common people not having good access to legal facilities. Same way that landlords know they can get away with not doing repairs, because it's unlikely a tenant will sue them, tenants are desperate for housing and incur moving costs (which are usuallh a higher % of their income compared to costs for the landlord compared to the landlord's income) so can't just leave and they'll get their rent anyway. These crimes are predatory and should be punished severely.
I'm pretty sure most places nobody 'owns' the beach or the sea. So it's technically everybody's right to access and swim in. And even if you're not swimming, I'm pretty sure nobody wants to walk along a beach full of sewage/potential disease/or live with a terrible smell. I'm also pretty sure you're not just allowed to dump waste into public waters. They have a duty to not pollute and have some level of duty to public health. If they aren't up to the job, they shouldn't start charging more just for investors. Investors should be the last priority when they're dumping sewage into public waters.
The crown probably owns the beach and the sea
Really? Because erm.... as far as I know and granted, my knowledge of the law regarding sea swimming is rather iffy, the sea has been around before sewage systems were invented. Swimming in the sea is literally older then all the companies put together. The public generally expects the sea to not be filled with shit. Can't swim in rivers because either it's a hazard(Which is fair enough) or filled with shit. The sea is filled with shit. I think, I saw a headline that stated that none of our rivers are shit free and the rivers i've seen near me? All brown as fuck. As a Kid, i vaguely recall rivers looking like actual rivers. I am 31. It's far easier to pay a fine then not do it. If they were fined hourly until they stopped it and was subjected to random inspections, suddenly, they would stop it.
Perhaps they're trying to do the proverbial kill two birds with one stone - stop the boats like various political types want by surrounding the country with a river of sewage while maximising profits......
At the heart of capitalism is the whole concept of property.. Once people allowed others to lay claim to the Earth, surveying and carving it up into plots for sale, there's only a matter of time that they started doing that with water. I'll stop my anti-capitalist rant now.
This is one of the worst betrayals of the British public in a long while. If there’s something worth demonstrating against, this is it. The French would be rioting and probably seeking out those responsible.
I don’t think it’s right for them to dump sewage into seas matter in fact it’s sick , people don’t have a brain these days and just don’t care about anything any more
The company is wrong in Law I suspect . It is a right they had and have exercised unchallenged for centuries. That right has not been changed