Call for better regulation to fix "failure" of safeguarding River Thames from pollution

An “urgent” call has been issued for the Government to go further and faster to tackle a “failure” to safeguard the River Thames.

River Thames Society chairman Peter Finch said tougher oversight was needed to ensure the river is better protected from sewage pollution, and restore public confidence in the water industry.

In a letter to Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, whose High Wycombe constituency includes riverside communities in South Buckinghamshire, he said action was needed now to tackle the problem. More than a thousand people are members of the River Thames Society, with hundreds based along the middle stretch of the river, including Henley.

Mr Finch told the Henley Standard that sewage releases into the River Thames in and around Henley were “quite frankly, disgusting.”

He continued: “The overflows are disgusting, and they should not be happening.

“The issue is that these sewage treatment works, in many cases, they’ve outgrown or they haven’t kept up with the increasing population in their areas.”

Mr Finch’s letter, entitled an “urgent need for effective regulation of the water industry”, criticises what he describes as a “degradation of regulatory oversight in the water industry”.

The letter added: “This failure has visible and distressing consequences with pollution levels remaining unacceptably high, ecosystems under increasing stress and public confidence in both the regulator and the industry eroded.”

The comments follow the Government’s A New Vision for Water white paper, which includes scrapping industry watchdog Ofwat among other reforms.

Mr Finch said the proposals suggested stronger regulation, but key issues remained unclear.

He said: “I think the government’s got this idea to strengthen that [regulation], which is obviously good.

“But things like ownership [private ownership of water] and so on — it was all vague.

“I suppose the government, in terms of Thames Water, is just hoping that it will sort itself out.”

A spokesman for Thames Water said the company takes its environmental responsibility “extremely seriously” and it was making “the most significant upgrade to the wastewater network in 150 years.”

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [Defra] spokesman said the government had “banned unfair bonuses” and introduced legislation which could see water bosses jailed who “obstruct investigations.”

An Environment Agency spokesman said it had ramped up its enforcement team from 41 people to 195 to protect waterways.