Famous campaigner backs York woman in sewage campaign

A WOMAN who has waded through sewage with her shopping to get to her River Ouse houseboat has met with Feargal Sharkey who is calling for action.

Philippa D’Netto, who lives by York’s Fulford Ings nature reserve, told The Undertones singer and campaigner she had also seen waste including women’s sanitary pads hanging from trees.

Mr Sharkey said he was backing Labour York Outer candidate Luke Charters in calling for law changes to crack down on water companies discharging waste water into rivers.

The singer-turned-campaigner’s visit to York on Monday, July 1 was one stop on a tour during the general election to back Labour candidates who have committed to tackling the issue.

Mr Sharkey also visited Rishi Sunak’s Richmond and Northallerton constituency on Monday in his bid to gather support to clean up England’s waterways.

The visit follows a sewage leak at Fulford Ings out of a manhole in November following Babet which Yorkshire Water later arranged to clear up.

Ms D’Netto said although sewage had always been present in the water the amount being discharged had grown to the point where she felt she had to warn others.

The houseboat resident said: “I’ve lived here for 11 years and we’re used to seeing sewage after the floods.

“In winter when the water levels come up it brings wet wipes and women’s sanitary towels and leaves them hanging like strange fruit in the trees.

“And you’ve got to wade through it with the coal, shopping and your dog.

“I take my dog to Fulford Ings every day and at one point we made a sign saying ‘Raw Sewage’ to warn other people about it.”

Mr Sharkey said situations like Philippa’s should not be happening.

He said: “I’ve heard first hand that people like Philippa have to wade through sewage simply to lead a normal life.

“Yorkshire Water’s at the epicentre of that and that’s why I’m asking for people to vote for Labour so they can do nothing more than look after people.”

Mr Charters said his party was putting water companies on notice with its plans to boost monitoring and criminalise repeated unlawful sewage dumping.

The York Outer candidate said: “If I am given the priviledge of being MP I will be fighting to clean up our precious rivers.”

It comes as Yorkshire Water unveiled a project worth £170,000 to improve the performance of two overflows in York.

The investment will see the overflows at Coney Street which discharges into the River Ouse and Fishergate which flows into the River Foss improved.

That work is part of a £180 million programme from the company to reduce discharges into Yorkshire waterways while a further £1.4 billion investment is planned from 2025 to 2030.

Yorkshire Water’s Head of Corporate Affairs Tim Myatt told York councillors last week that the company was keen to investigate when things went wrong and resolve any issues.

He added the amount of hours that discharges took place in did not reflect the amount of sewage being dumped into rivers or the overall water quality of them.

The head of corporate affairs said: “The River Ouse is a big river but we understand there needs to be a significant amount of investment and that’s already ongoing.”