Blaming water companies alone is a ‘get out of jail free’ card

Those getting hot under the collar about our failing sewage infrastructure and the dire levels of investment by the water companies have every right to be incensed by the filthy state of our beaches and rivers, let alone the cost of improving our system.

However, blaming these money-grubbing utility giants does not represent the full picture. Planners, local authority bodies, and the government are equally complicit in this debacle. They had in their hands the power to insist on an infrastructure capable of handling the waste from the thousands of new “Lego” homes plonked on farmland on the periphery of every city in the land.

Blaming water companies alone allows local authorities a “get out of jail free” card to which they are not entitled. Had local planners insisted upon a risk assessment and surveys of sewer capacity before allowing any developments to proceed would have saved miles of coastline and rivers from an evil cocktail of pollutants, nutrient overload, and E coli.

They’re all complicit and should be equally accountable.

Steve Mackinder

Denver

Many of The Independent’s letters and commentary lay much of the justified opprobrium and blame on the privatised status of the water companies in England and Wales and call for re-nationalisation as a solution.

Little notice is taken of the situation in Scotland, where we suffer similar outflows of untreated sewage despite our water industry being nationalised. It is the devolved government here that is ultimately responsible for recognising the problem and for providing the resources for the solution.

Yet the pollution persists across Scotland, so may I suggest calls for the nationalisation of the water companies in England and Wales may not be the panacea that is suggested?

Roger Thomas

East Lothian

Rishi Sunak says he knows that times are tough now... but really it has been tough for people since austerity was introduced by George Osborne.

Every measure important to the British public, health, education, public services, utilities, and job security have deteriorated. Only costs have risen.

The common denominator over the past 13 years has been Tory governments. I am afraid the sunny uplands they speak of are behind us, at least until these failed politicians are gone.

William Park

Fairhaven

The announcement that BT intends to roll out more new technology must surely leave customers with a sinking feeling if my experience of BT’s current customer service is anything to go by.

When the broadband of my neighbour, a Ukrainian guest in our village, was unexpectedly disconnected she was treated brutally by BT’s chatbot. I intervened to help her, and it immediately became clear that the system was designed and tested by and for first-language English speakers who were relatively tech-savvy.

So I wrote to the BT chairman making a number of constructive suggestions including the possibility of their chat accommodating non-English speakers. One would think that in the day of Google Translate, this would be relatively straightforward for a technology company to implement. And even if only for Ukrainians an appropriate response to their plight.

I received a standard reply which basically told me that my letter had been filed unread in their waste paper basket. If their new AI systems are designed by BT’s humans that don’t listen and don’t appear to care, the future is not looking good for our diverse and ageing population.

Phil Gilbert

Hallaton