Coogan attacks water firm’s ‘PR spin’ on clean-up of toxic Windermere sewage
Steve Coogan has accused United Utilities of “greenwashing” and “PR spin” as he criticised the company for putting sewage into Windermere and turning the lake toxic.
The I’m Alan Partridge star joined a protest outside the North West water company’s offices near Windermere in the Lake District.
He called on the Government to compel it to clean up England’s largest lake rather than pay huge dividends to shareholders.
“United Utilities have a big PR machine and they put nice fancy offices up like this and say, ‘We’re working together with the people of Windermere,’” he said.
“But it’s all a smokescreen to distract attention from what they’ve been doing over the last 30 years, which is putting treated and untreated sewage into Lake Windermere.
“It’s to such an extent that there are toxic levels of algae, there are algae blooms that show the nitrate levels are like through the roof.”
He added: “They have been paying out record dividends to shareholders – there’s no excuse for this.
“We’re telling them to stop putting sewage in the lake and take out what they put in.”
Coogan said the company should not be allowed to pass on the cost of cleaning up to the lake to bill-payers but rather should deny their shareholders a dividend for years.
“Either they need to do it themselves, which I doubt they will, or the Government needs to act,” he told ITV’s This Morning. “What makes it more obscene is it’s almost like the business model is predicated on the ability to put sewage in a lake and not do anything about it, because to sort that problem would require a huge investment that they are not prepared to put into it.”
The actor said the money the company is investing in addressing the issue is “chicken feed” in comparison with the profits, and that the grants were “PR spin and greenwashing”.
He added: “It is all to stop people looking at the fundamental problem, which is they are the biggest polluters in this country, the biggest water utility company pollutes British waterways.
“The lakes are there for everyone, people who can’t afford holidays abroad to be able to use the lake for recreation and it’s threatening that.”
Chris Matthews, head of sustainability at United Utilities, said customer bills would be increasing to help fund improvements.
“It’s going to be about £25 a year that bills will go up, about £2 a month, to help fund what is a £14bn plan,” he said.
“We share the concerns that Steve has expressed there, and many other people. We are investing to tackle this problem; we’ve spent £75m on our waste water treatment to halve the amount of phosphorus that goes into the lake.”