New clause 19 - Power to require adoption of private sewers
Water Bill [Lords]
10:45 am
Mr Paddy Tipping (Sherwood, Labour)
I am pleased to discuss new clause 19 and to have the support of some long-standing campaigners on the issue that it addresses; my hon. Friends the Members for Stroud, for Falmouth and Camborne and for Birmingham, Northfield (Richard Burden), as well as my hon. Friend the Member for Rugby and Kenilworth (Andy King) who has the important and unique distinction of being the chairman of the all-party sewers and sewerage group. While I am giving out accolades, I should also mention Stephen Battersby, who runs an organisation called the Campaign for the Renewal of Older Sewage Systems. He has been a strong advocate of the need to make progress on the issue of private sewers.
Sometimes amendments are described as probing. Let me be clear; this is a prodding amendment. I want to prod the Minister, who needs no prodding on the issue. Since he took on his extended post, he has shown a great deal of interest, commitment and action on the issue. The problem is a long-standing one, which has been around since the privatisation of the water industry back in 1991. I looked at the Water Industry Act 1991; the Committee sittings took place
in this Room 12 years ago, and I suspect that similar discussions to those we are about to have took place at that time.
The position is perfectly simple. Throughout the country there are a large number of properties with sewers that are not adopted. In the ambit of Newark and Sherwood district council—an area that part of my constituency covers—there are more than 1,400 properties that are not connected to adopted sewers. I should put on record my thanks to Newark and Sherwood district council, and particularly to Jeremy Hutchinson, one of its environmental health officers.