Richard recently arranged a visit to the water recycling plant at Odell with representatives from Anglian Water, parish councillors and Borough Councillors.
Speaking after the visit, Richard Fuller MP said:
This was one of the most constructive visits I've done in my time as an MP.
Not only did we get to see the new storage tank that was put in place last summer to improve capacity to prevent overflows, but also to learn that further chemical treatment is already being done at the facility.
There's more work to be done, but I think the local Parishes will be very happy to hear of the progress made to date, and we're now working on the next stage of the plan.
The visit was just before the government announced its Plan for Water, which sets out:
- new Catchment Action Plans to improve all water bodies in England backed up with new funding - community-led schemes which aim to improve waterways and surrounding eco-systems, backed up by new funding, to improve all water bodies in England.
- a new Water Restoration Fund where money from water company environmental fines and penalties - taken from company profits - will be spent directly on restoring the water environment under a catchment-based approach
- changing the law to increase the amount the Environment Agency can penalise water companies for damaging the environment - consulting on potentially unlimited penalties
- more water company inspections, with new inspection targets
- bringing forward proposals to ban the use of plastic in wet wipes
- new proposals to restrict ‘forever’ chemicals which pollute our rivers
- more than doubling the funding for farmers under the Slurry Infrastructure Grant to £34 million to reduce farm nutrient pollution
- supporting farmers with food production by enabling them to store more water on their land – launching the second round of £10m Water Management Grant to fund on-farm reservoirs and irrigation equipment. We will also reduce planning barriers for small reservoirs.
For our local Water Company, this means:
1. £27 million by Anglian Water to accelerate storm overflow improvements to reduce 450 spills per year over 21 storm overflows at high priority sites
2. £10 million by Anglian Water for nutrient reduction at wastewater treatment works at three water recycling centres to improve the water environment and unlock new housing developments
3. £15 million by Anglian Water for water recycling – acceleration of a pilot re-use plant and transfer in Colchester to increase the water supply by transferring water to a raw water reservoir.
4. £27 million by Anglian Water for accelerating smart metering programme to install 60,000 meters before 2025 and deliver 1.3 million litres per day in water savings
You can read more about the Plan for Water here.
