At the weekend I joined water chiefs and engineers on site in Cheltenham as work begun on the brand-new engineering solution which to tackle sewage spills into the River Chelt.
The background is that in 2022 I decided to pull my wellies on and track down the main overflow into the River Chelt, using Rivers Trust maps. Having located it in Charlton Kings near Dunkerton’s, I called a meeting with Severn Trent chiefs on-site to make my concerns crystal clear and to demand an end to this decades-long practice. As I later said in Parliament, the practice is filthy, completely unacceptable and should have been consigned to history long ago.
So I was delighted that Severn Trent listened, and in May 2022 agreed to take action. They gave me a ‘cast-iron commitment’ to clean up the river and pledged as an initial step, to reduce overflows by 85% by the end of 2024. Following the installation of new monitoring equipment and other mitigations, that target was hit in March 2023, eighteen months ahead of schedule. There have been no spills since February.
Now they have gone one step better, kicking off this major engineering scheme involving the laying of a high-capacity pipe to reduce the risk further. Work will continue for the next few weeks and I will keep readers updated.
When it comes to overflows, it’s important to slay a few myths too. First, they’re not new. They act a safety valve to stop loos backing up at times of heavy rain, and have operated in Cheltenham for several decades.
Second, the overflow system is not unique to the UK. Similar arrangements are in place across Europe, including in Denmark and Germany. Visitors to Belgium can see even signs encouraging tourists not to flush loos at a time of heavy rain, to avoid diluted sewage ending up in the waterways.
Be that as it may, thanks to the support of local people, we are in touching distance of fixing this problem in our town for good – and securing a clean river for future generations of Cheltonians, and local wildlife, to enjoy.
[Column published in the Glos Echo and Cheltenham Post]