The headline claim made in Flick Drummond MP’s recent flurry of through-the-door leafleting in Winchester was ‘Flick did not vote to put sewage into our rivers’. A fairly low bar, surely, in terms of political aspirations, of a potential future MP for our city, but one that happens to be a (toilet?) tissue of lies.

Flick Drummond, along with every 229 Conservative MPs, voted on January 25 2023, for ‘updated’ environmental targets aiming for “80% reduction in phosphates in rivers by 2038”; in other words, a 15-year delay from the time of that vote until such measures take effect.

Meanwhile sewage disposal in the UK remains a national scandal in terms of government legislation, action, and oversight by complicit ‘regulatory’ bodies like the Environment Agency and Ofwat.

Other claims in Drummond's leaflets range from ‘our chalk streams are the cleanest that they’ve been in decades’ to ‘This Government is the Greenest Ever’! In which case, why did Southern Water receive a record £90m fine in 2021 for causing ‘widespread pollution', after pleading guilty to 6,971 unpermitted sewage discharges? Many more, too, since then.

Meanwhile Rishi Sunak’s recent visit to Winchester High Street was the day after disruption to Southern Water supplies to parts of Winchester, including the Royal Hampshire County Hospital. Computer Weekly has confirmed that Southern Water has hacked during this period of disruption. As a Southern Water customer, I am currently awaiting a response from them as to whether this was ‘merely’ a ransomware attack - and a potentially fineable Information Commissioner-level breach of customer data - or whether this cyber attack was directly responsible for the loss of control of local water supply in the affected areas.

Perhaps Flick Drummond and Southern Water could respond,  via these pages. with an answer for customers, like me, apparently stuck with this failing monopoly supplier?


Nick Wray,

Fordington Avenue,

Fulflood,

Winchester

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