MP Helen Morgan and Lib Dem leader Ed Davey try there hand on the water in Shrewsbury.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, lovely to see you this year.
00:02Ed, this is Sarah and Alan.
00:05Hi Sarah, nice to see you.
00:08Hi Alan, nice to see you.
00:10So, Ed, I am in Shrewsbury today.
00:12First of all, how much fun did you have out there?
00:14What did you make of the canoeing?
00:15Oh, it was great fun.
00:16I mean, it's wonderful here in Shrewsbury.
00:18And it's a great river.
00:20And the serious matter, though, was we need to protect it, right?
00:24Seven Trent, the water company around here,
00:26last year, allowed over 1,000 days equivalent of sewage
00:31to be pumped into the River Severn and its tributaries.
00:33That's disgusting and outrageous.
00:35It harms humans if we end up falling in there on the wrong day.
00:40And, of course, it harms animals and nature.
00:42And people would expect in 2025 that we had clean rivers
00:46and we weren't dumping sewage into it.
00:48So that was the serious message that we've made today.
00:51And Liberal Democrats continue to lead the campaign here in Shropshire
00:55and at Westminster with Helen Morgan against this awful sewage.
00:58What needs to be done, do you think?
01:00Well, first of all, we've got to say to the bosses of the water companies,
01:02you can't have bonuses when you're polluting our rivers and our lakes and our seas.
01:07And secondly, we've got to get tougher with them.
01:09And that's why we think there should be a new regulator.
01:12Ofwatt has proved incapable of tackling it.
01:16And so we want a clean water authority with all Ofwatt's powers,
01:20but powers from the Environment Agency, drinking water in Spectra.
01:23So it's got real teeth.
01:25And make these water companies pay for cleaning up.
01:28Yeah, I don't know if you've heard, we've had residents in Haddon
01:31who've experienced sewage coming up their toilets.
01:34What do you think of that?
01:35Well, my heart goes out to them.
01:37It just shouldn't happen.
01:38It's disgusting.
01:39And I'm afraid it's a lack of investment in the water infrastructure over the years.
01:44I'm afraid the regulators and previous governments and conservatives
01:48allow these water companies to give their shareholders huge dividends,
01:52often by borrowing huge amounts of money to pay for those dividends,
01:55rather than investing in the pipes and the reservoirs and reducing the sewage.
02:02And so I'm afraid the Liberal Democrats are going to keep on this campaign
02:06for those people who are seeing sewage in their own homes,
02:09as well as the community seeing sewage in our rooms.
02:12Now we're gearing up to the local elections.
02:14How are you feeling ahead of them?
02:15And how do you think you're going to fare in Shropshire?
02:17Well, we're feeling really positive, actually, in Shropshire.
02:19I've been talking to Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire.
02:23She and her team have been knocking on doors.
02:25And we're really grateful for the very positive response we've had from local people.
02:29And they like what Helen's been doing.
02:31We like what our team's been doing.
02:33They've been very worried about how the Conservatives have been running Shropshire
02:36for many, many years now.
02:39How Conservatives in Shropshire have taken people for granted.
02:42And, you know, don't seem to be in touch with the issues.
02:46And I like to think that Liberal Democrats, if you elect a Liberal Democrat councillor,
02:50they'll work with the community and always be on their side.
02:54Yeah, Shropshire councillors have faced mounting financial pressures in the last couple of years.
02:59What do you think Liberal Democrats would bring differently to the region?
03:02Well, there's no doubt their finances are structured in a really bad way.
03:05After years of Conservative government, both locally and nationally,
03:09many local authorities are really struggling.
03:11And Liberal Democrats are under no illusion.
03:13If we take over in May, if we win these elections, and I hope there's a chance we can,
03:17we'll have some tough decisions to make, no doubt about that.
03:20If we work with local people, work with the community, I think we can overcome them.
03:26I think nationally we need to be calling the government to invest in social care.
03:30A large slug of the budget here in Shropshire goes on looking after our elderly and our disabled,
03:35and therefore we need some national funding as well.
03:38One of the big talking points in Shropshire is the North West Relief Road.
03:41Would you cancel that, even if it did cost £89 million?
03:44Well, Helen Morgan's been championing for local residents on that issue,
03:49and I'm really proud of what she's been doing in Westminster.
03:52Do you plan, last time you were in Shropshire, it was with alpacas, this time canoeing?
03:57What do you think's next around the corner? Do you hope to come back to the county very soon?
04:01Well, I hope to. Do you know what? They never tell me until I'm just about to do it.
04:04So you have to ask them.
04:06But the key thing is having a bit of fun, but with a serious message.
04:10And whether it's issues around farming or it's around sewage,
04:13or issues around health and care and the cost of living.
04:16Liberal Democrats are tackling those serious issues affecting families across the county.
04:21And, you know, for example, if you look in the national picture,
04:24we're the only party standing up to President Trump on behalf of the British people.
04:28It's interesting you mention farming.
04:30Recently there's been some protests in Shropshire about the family farm tax.
04:33What's your views on that? And will you fight for those farmers in Shropshire?
04:37Absolutely. The family farm tax is outrageous.
04:39It should be gone. It should never have been proposed.
04:42We oppose it completely.
04:44In fact, it was the Liberal Democrat farming spokesperson, Tim Farron,
04:48who first got onto this literally minutes after the Chancellor had announced it.
04:53We voted against it.
04:54I think it's so wrong.
04:56It shows the Labour government don't understand farmers
04:59and how they work generation from generation.
05:02And it's particularly disappointing because after the Conservatives failing farmers,
05:06with their appalling trade deals,
05:08with their failure to get a support scheme after we left the EU,
05:13I'm afraid farmers feel really betrayed by both Labour and the Conservatives.
05:18Well, thanks very much. I hope you go and enjoy a coffee.
05:20Helen, what a beautiful day in Shrewsbury.
05:22How much did you enjoy the canoeing that you had with Ed?
05:24That was really fantastic. I could strongly recommend that to anybody to go and do.
05:28Really, really enjoyed it, yeah.
05:30That's good. But the serious point you hear today then,
05:32what are your concerns around the River Severn?
05:34Well, we're concerned about the River Severn obviously in Shrewsbury,
05:37but it's an equal problem on the Morda and on the Rodan in North Shropshire,
05:42where we've got filthy raw sewage being dumped in the river.
05:46And it means it's not always a pleasant experience to go and do that.
05:50It was fine today. We've had some really dry weather recently.
05:52But, you know, it can be really not very nice at all.
05:55And we're really concerned that the water company bosses are getting huge bonuses
06:00while failing to tackle this horrible problem.
06:02So, that's what we're here to highlight today.
06:04Yeah, it's one of a number of problems that you're looking to highlight.
06:06How confident are you for the local elections coming up in Shropshire?
06:09Do you think you're going to have a good time in those?
06:11I think we're going to do well.
06:12We're really positive about making some gains.
06:14So, you know, we've got to wait and see for the poll on the day.
06:16But, yes, we're feeling positive at the moment.
06:19The election campaigns are ramping up.
06:22Some more fun things planned like this, do you think, along the way?
06:25I think with three weeks to go, the rest of the team, including me,
06:28are going to be focusing on speaking to as many people as possible
06:31and making sure they've had a chance to ask us about our plans for Shropshire,
06:35which we think people really, really are ready for a change in Shropshire,
06:38and we hope to be able to deliver that for them.
06:41Yeah, from speaking to people, what do you think the priorities are?
06:43Obviously, we're nearly a year on from the general election campaigns.
06:46What are they talking about now since that?
06:49Well, since the general election on a national level,
06:52they're talking very much about the same things that they were talking about last year,
06:55which is the health service, cost of living,
06:58things like having taken the winter fuel payment away from pensioners.
07:01And they're also very concerned about local issues like potholes,
07:06like the dire financial straits that Shropshire Council finds itself in,
07:10and the services that they can see worsening around them.
07:14The fiasco with the tip-booking system has come up time and time again,
07:18so people are really ready to see a different approach at Shropshire Council.
07:21Do you think that's what Liberal Democrats will bring in Shropshire then to that?
07:24I think we'll bring a fresh approach.
07:25There's no running away from the financial pressures that all Liberal Councils are under,
07:28and we need to be honest about that.
07:30But I think we will take a different approach towards decision-making,
07:33and hopefully be able to deliver a better experience for people in Shropshire.
07:37That's great. I mean, in Mark Drayton recently you were there, you held a surgery.
07:41How was that chatting to residents, and did they have any particular things they had to say?
07:44Yeah, so surgeries are very much people who need face-to-face support with difficult problems.
07:49So they get in touch with my office and they make an appointment,
07:51and we move those surgeries around North Shropshire
07:54because obviously it's a long way to travel for some people.
07:57So, yeah, a range of issues cropping up at those surgeries,
08:01but they're very, very useful, important things to carry out.
08:06Thank you very much.
08:09How was it, Ed?
08:10It was fantastic.
08:11Yeah?
08:12Absolutely fantastic.
08:13You didn't want to come back in, did you?
08:14I was really enjoying it.
08:15I was just thinking, can we get a picnic and go up?
08:17Yeah.
08:18Go through.
08:19Beautiful.
08:20I mean, obviously there's serious stories about the sewage and protecting the quality of the water,
08:25but it's so important because you have such great fun.
08:27It's such great fun.
08:28Good.