WE all know how much havoc the Conservatives wreaked in their fourteen years of government, but of all the damage dealt, one of the most unforgivable things they did was the chaos in slow motion of allowing the water companies to ruin our waterways. In 2023 alone, water companies dumped sewage into our rivers and seas for 3.6-million hours.

Nowhere is untouched: from the Tamar to the Thames, from Scotland to Wales (which, respectively, are publicly-owned and not-for-profit, showing there is no silver bullet) water companies everywhere are threatening fragile ecosystems, human health, and the beauty of nature up and down the country.

I’m proud that our government has committed to halving the number of sewage spills from 2024 levels by 2030 and is working to make water companies finally pay for the damage they’ve dealt. The Government is currently consulting on making it easier to levy fines against companies who breach environmental regulations, including automatic fines that could be issued quickly and without fuss, discouraging the behaviour whilst making companies pay for the damage they’re inflicting. We’ve also banned water companies from issuing unfair bonuses; under the Tories, water companies were allowed to plead poverty – their excuse for their poor infrastructure and sewage discharging – whilst giving their CEOs £112-million in bonuses. Labour has ended that charade.

But whilst work continues at a national level, I know that, on a local level, communities deserve power over the quality of their waterways, and the ability to hold water polluters to account. That's why I’ve created the Water Wardens community water testing project. A community of volunteers will co-ordinate with communities across St Austell and Newquay to empower local people to test their own water. They’ll collect evidence and monitor our waterways so that we can identify the areas that are most affected by sewage discharge and create a community-led record of the frequency and severity of the pollution. This will help hold water companies and other polluters in our area accountable, exposing any weakness in our regulation so that I can advocate for further reform and action from the Environment Agency.

In June, I will be organising a series of rally events, where we will launch your local Water Warden teams and demonstrate how the monitoring would work. If you care about our waterways in Cornwall, please keep and eye out and join us. Our Water Wardens will hold water companies accountable for devastating our rivers and beaches, with a community-rooted effort that will allow us to arm ourselves with indisputable evidence of the damage they’re doing.

Our beaches – be it Porth, Readymoney, Fistral or Duporth, to name a few - and our waterways – such as the White River, or the Gannel (on which the Pentire Residents’ Association already do a great job of water testing) – are some of the most beautiful areas in all of Cornwall, if not all of Britain. It is our civic duty to take the fight to the companies that would threaten them, and I hope you’ll join me in doing our bit to protect our waterways.