THE TORIES MEET THEIR WATERPOO

Duke of Wellington victory

MINISTERS have been forced into a climbdown in a row over levels of raw sewage being dumped into rivers and seas.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said a new legal duty would be imposed on water companies to “progressively reduce” the amount of sewage pumped into waterways from storm overflows.

Peers were still expected to vote on a bid by the Duke of Wellington last night to compel firms to improve their sewage systems “as soon as reasonable” – which the Government was expected to lose.

In a last-minute bid to avert the

Lords defeat, Mr Eustice said a new amendment would be added to the Environment Bill when it returns to the Commons to enshrine it into law.

Tories were left scrambling after a furious public outcry when MPS resisted the crossbench peer’s amendment to force firms to clean up their act – against the wishes of Labour, the Lib Dems and 22 Conservative rebels.

Untreated sewage was pumped into coastal waters and rivers in England more than 400,000 times in the last year, the Environment Agency said.

Ministers had argued it would cost up to £660billion to upgrade the Victorian sewage system to stop all storm overflows and claimed the bill contained measures to reduce sewage dumping.

Shadow Environment Secretary Luke Pollard said: “It should not have taken a public outcry for this Government to take the scandal of raw sewage being discharged into our rivers seriously. It still has no clear plan and no grip on the issue.”

Hugo Tagholm, CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, said water firms have not “got a right to destroy these spaces”, and urged them to “to cut into dividends” to restore rivers and coastlines.