Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey takes to the river in Shrewsbury in a canoe with local MP

Shropshire Star

MP Helen Morgan and Lib Dem leader Ed Davey try there hand on the water in Shrewsbury.

Transcript

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.

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