Last autumn, Conservative MPs voting against an amendment to the environment bill, that was meant to stop water companies like Severn Trent from pumping raw sewage into rivers and the ocean. Nationally, raw sewage was allowed to enter our waterways 400,000 times last year, for a total of about 3,100,000 hours.

The Golden Brook, which flows from Breaston, through West Park and much of Long Eaton towards Attenborough, where it joins the river Erewash, is routinely polluted with raw sewage during heavy rainfall. On Wilsthorpe Road in 2020, the sewer storm overflow spilled into the Golden Brook 12 times for a total of 105 hours, while on Marlborough Road in Breaston, the sewer storm overflow spilled 3 times into the Golden Brook for a total of 3 hours.

West Park in Long Eaton is regularly used to capture flood waters and during heavy storms the park is routinely flooding directly with sewage. Ilkeston fares no better, with untreated sewage entering the Erewash River on 130 occasions for a total of 515 hours in the Ilkeston area.

The proximity of the Golden Brook to the children’s play area in West Park is of particular concern, with flood waters polluting the park substantially during extend periods of flooding. The council has to build thousands of new houses, but the current infrastructure can’t cope, and we’re all going to be here when things go wrong.

Your MP voted for this to continue to happen, and the Conservative-run Erewash Borough Council have done nothing about it. It’s time for us all to do something about this disgusting practice – please sign this petition:

“We, the undersigned, petition Erewash Borough Council to #EndSewagePollution in Erewash. We demand that Erewash borough Council work to eradicate the pollution of waterways and parks in Erewash as soon as possible, by working with parliament and the water companies to end overflow from sewerage systems in the Borough.”