Reform UK - North Cornwall

Supporting Clean Beaches in North Cornwall

North Cornwall is home to some of the worlds most beautiful beaches. Millions of people annually make the effort to visit our county to enjoy the beaches and ocean in our area. Visitors to our county bring in millions of pounds and support our tourism industry.

no to sewerage

Sadly, we have an ongoing problem in the form of unplanned sewerage discharges into the sea in North Cornwall. This problem has been around for many years and threatens not only our beautiful beaches but also the health of local residents and our tourist visitors. It has not been enough of a priority for local politicians and authorities to get much done to make a positive impact.

Mission Statement

By committing to deal with the sewerage issue, my aims are as follows:

  1. Reduce the health risks of swimming in our local sea for locals and visitors.
  2. Improve the local economy through improved sustainability of local tourism.

First 100 Days

If elected as Reform UK MP for North Cornwall, within the first 100 days in office, I would create a plan to deal with unplanned sewerage discharges in North Cornwall.

The plan

With the right level of commitment, I do believe that the problem of sewerage discharge into our oceans in North Cornwall can be solved. To this end, the general approach would be:

  • Identify key stakeholders. e.g. Local council, local parish, water authorities, activists and charity groups.
  • Work with stakeholders to create a vision statement of what we would like to see for the area in terms of reasonable, quantifiable and measurable results for improving sewerage issues to our beaches and ocean.
  • Working with stakeholders, create a fiscally sustainable and sensible plan for how this project can be funded, the investment aims and opportunities as well as a declaration of environmental responsibility. We can, with the right messaging, position North Cornwall as being one of the cleanest areas in the UK to visit for tourism.

At the end of the 100 days, I would have an initial draft of a workable plan in place and report back to constituents. At any time in the first 100 days and for a period afterwards, I would welcome constituents input to the draft plan.

Sewerage Discharge

Key Facts

Surfers Against Sewerage issued the following data:

  • Over the course of 2020 and 2021, sewage has been dumped into the ocean and rivers around the UK more than 770,000 times. That’s almost 6 million hours of sewage flooding our beaches and river banks that many of us surf, bathe and play in.
  • Since October 2021, a total of 9,216 sewage pollution alerts for locations included in the Safer Seas & Rivers Service, 2,053 of which were during the 2022 bathing season alone.
  • Over 39% of sickness case studies reported to us correlate to sewage discharge alerts. And 63% of cases that were reported to a doctor were attributed to poor water quality.

The link between sewage pollution and illness is clear. Over the last 12 months, SaS received 720 sickness reports, highlighting when and where people have been getting sick after playing in the water. Almost 70% of people reported suffering from stomach upsets (gastroenteritis) and 1 in every 15 cases reported multiple illnesses.

Worryingly, it was found that over 400 reports of sickness were from official bathing waters classified as ‘excellent’.

Dry Spills in North Cornwall

Sewerage overflows have been designed to operate with an emergency release valve system to be used in exceptional circumstances to reduce the risk of sewerage backing up into local homes. Rules exist as to when these valves for emergency sewerage discharge to our oceans can be activated. The rules as defined by The Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations only allow sewerage overflows to be discharged in the event of ‘unusually heavy rainfall’. However, government has admitted that sewerage overflows are being used substantially beyond their intended purposes and it these spills that are described as “Dry Spills”.

According to SaS, Porthtowan beach has a bathing water classification of ‘Excellent’ but experienced at least one dry spill event in 2022.