CLEAN water campaigner Feargal Sharkey will join a weekly sewage protest in Windermere.
Matt Staniek, the founder of Save Windermere, announced on his X account that the former Undertones singer will be joining him.
Save Windermere have been campaigning outside the United Utilities Information Centre on Crescent Road on Monday mornings from 9am to 10am for 22 weeks. Mr Sharkey will join the protest next week.
The group said in November it would continue to protest outside the centre until the water company commits to stop putting sewage into Windermere - and invited Mr Sharkey to join them.
Water companies are allowed to discharge sewage in times of exceptional rainfall to prevent flooding in the system.
Mr Staniek put on his X account: "Feargal Sharkey is the leading voice on the national exploitation of the water industry and his presence couldn’t come at a better time."
THIS IS NOT A DRILL - - - THIS IS NOT A DRILL - - - !!!
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) April 1, 2024
See you all next Monday 9:00am, United Utilities Information Centre, 8 Crescent Road, Windermere, LA23 1EA.
Bring as much stuff as you might ever need to make as much noise as you might ever want.😀
🎺🎷🪇🎻🪕🥁🪘📯🥳📣 https://t.co/F7khwheaJR
He then pointed to the recent Event Duration Monitoring data released by the government last month that revealed that 366 days worth of untreated sewage was discharged into the Windermere catchment from the seven sites United Utilities reports from.
Mark Garth, a boss at United Utilities, said: “We have seen one of the wettest years on record in the North West and that has contributed to an increased number of storm overflow operations compared to the previous year. Since 2015, we have invested £45m upgrading wastewater systems around Windermere resulting in 50 per cent reduction in the levels of phosphorus entering the lake from our systems.
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"Whilst the current system is designed to activate during rainfall I understand and share people’s concerns and the need for change and that’s why we are proposing a £3 billion record investment programme to tackle storm overflows in the north west between 2025 and 2030. We are determined to deliver the step change that we all want to see.”
The water company said it was investing £41milllion to reduce storm overflow operation at four sites in Windermere by 50 per cent in 2030.
Mr Sharkey was the lead vocalist of Northern Irish punk band The Undertones during their most successful period in the late 1970s. This included hits such as Teenage Kicks and Here Comes The Summer.
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