On 12th November, Bristol City Council (BCC) debated a motion at their Full Council meeting “Save our rivers, stopping the sewage scandal”.  The motion passed with support from Lib Dems, Greens and Labour. This is what was agreed:

Full Council resolves to: Request that the BCC Environment and Sustainability Committee consider the views expressed by this motion and establish a Working Group with One City partners for the purpose of developing policy to improve the water quality of Bristol’s rivers and waterways. Full Council recommends that this working group could, as a starting point, investigate the following measures:

1. 1. Build and maintain a database on river quality across Bristol to properly monitor and assess the environmental state of our waterways.  This should include working with existing organisations such as the Bristol Avon Rivers Trust, who currently run a Water Guardians project to collect this data.
   2. Work with partners to trial and launch a project to encourage the use of water butts, both residentially and commercially, as a rainwater harvesting scheme to reduce the amount of rainwater entering our storm drain and sewage systems. 
   3. Launch an awareness campaign to inform the public of what they can do to prevent sewage spills, including a reminder of what not to put into the storm drain system.
   4. Collaborate with external partners to ensure that surface water and wastewater from private properties enter the correct drainage system. Council Officers should also ensure this when involved with the design or the approval of drainage infrastructure.
   5. Explore opportunities for installing Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) on Council-owned land.
   6. Consider the issue of sewage overflows as part of the ‘Managing for Nature Programme’. 

Full Council further resolves to write to:

1. 1. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to highlight the issues raised in this motion and to call for the Government to commit to ending the sewage scandal.
   2. The Chief Executive of Wessex Water, to call for urgent action to address the impact of wastewater discharges in our local rivers.

Community activist (and FrANC member) Ben Barker suggests we all contact our local councillors. He says:

Some great stuff in there – if it’s acted on. If you can it would be helpful to contact the councillors for your ward now. Personally I’m going to thank mine for participating in the discussion on water quality and say I’m delighted the motion passed, tell them how much I care about  Bristol’s rivers and streams and to ask them to support actions. I’d love to see cleaner water and more wildlife.

Here is a link to find your local BCC councillors including their official BCC email addresses. Adding your postcode to your email will help them know that you live in their area and are not just a random individual (who they can ignore):  Find my councillors.

With thanks to Peter Coleman-Smith from Trout on the Trym for the report from the council meeting and to Ben Barker for circulating the report through his Wildlife News newsletter. Contact mywildbedminster@bs3community.org.uk if you’d like to be added to its circulation list.