Graham Stuart Backs Council Review

Graham Stuart backs Council Review Panel’s call for tougher rules for water treatment works.

Longstanding campaigner Graham Stuart MP has written to the new Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom to endorse proposals made by a special review panel convened by East Riding of Yorkshire Council.  The panel, established to look into the problem of recurring foul smells from Yorkshire Water’s water treatment works at Saltend, has recommended that the regulatory regime for such plants should be toughened up with the aim of preventing future incidents.

Graham, who helped to win the fight to persuade Yorkshire Water to install a new £3.5m odour-control unit at the Saltend site in 2011 and who has had a series of meetings with company chiefs, joined local people in 2015 in calling for East Riding of Yorkshire Council to issue an abatement order to the company to compel it to address that summer’s outbreak, which was subsequently served.  Last autumn Yorkshire Water announced a £30 million action plan consisting of 50 different improvements to improve how the waste water that comes into the site is treated. 

The Council’s preferred option is that ministers should now amend the Environmental Permitting regime. Water treatment works are already regulated by the Environment Agency for their water discharges and it is suggested that odorous atmospheric discharges should also be included within the scope of the regulations.  This would have the benefit of pro-actively establishing controls before a nuisance is caused (rather than the Council having to wait to act until people complain); it would also provide certainty for water companies as to the required standards to achieve legal compliance and transfer the cost of regulation to the water companies in line with the “polluter pays” principle.

Graham, who gave evidence to the Council’s review earlier this year, has welcomed the proposals warmly. He said,

“Yorkshire Water’s plant at Saltend has caused a great deal of distress to the nearby community owing to the foul smells which have been emitted on an almost annual basis during the pea season.  People in the surrounding area have had summer after summer blighted by being unable to sit outdoors or even open their windows and the local authority has struggled to bring the company to account.

“Thanks to the efforts of East Riding councillors and local people who have worked tirelessly to highlight this problem, Yorkshire Water has now been forced to undertake an extensive programme of changes at Saltend.  Nonetheless it should never have taken so long for Yorkshire Water to get its house in order and I believe the change to the Environmental Permitting Regulations proposed by the Council’s dedicated review panel would be an effective tool to help prevent future such incidents in the East Riding and elsewhere.”