'Too little too late' - Harrogate Lib Dems say Yorkshire Water needs overhauled to truly solve sewage spills scandal

As well as calling for the terms of the company to be redrawn, Harrogate Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Tom Gordon has also criticised the Conservative Government and Harrogate and Knaresborough’s MP for voting down tougher action on polluting water firms.

“This announcement is too little too late after years of putting public health at risk and large-scale environmental damage,” said Mr Gordon.

“The apology means nothing unless the firm is completely reformed from top to bottom.

"Protecting the environment should be more important than making overseas investors rich.

"Sadly, Yorkshire Water still has their priorities all wrong.”

The Harrogate and Lib Dem spokesperson’s comments follow yesterday’s apology by water companies in England for sewage spills and the announcement of a £10 billion investment in a new National Overflows Plan to modernise our Victorian sewers.

A new Environmental hub, launching next year, will for the first time give everyone near real-time information on overflows, as well as the state of our rivers and coastalwaters.

Water companies will also support up to 100 communities to create new protected waters for swimming and recreation.

The Lib Dems argue the new measures still fall far short of the scale of the problem.

The party is calling for water firms to become “public benefit companies,” making environmental goals more important than profits, and making it compulsory for environmental experts to sit on company boards.

This would put an end to billions of pounds being wasted in dividends, they add.

Tom Gordon puts the blame at the feet of Tory politics.

"The Conservative Government and our local MP have spent recent years voting down tougher action on polluting water firms. They, too, owe people an apology.”

Yorkshire Water has pledged to £180 million on a storm overflow reduction plan to prevent sewage spills.

But Mr Gordon says the 190 storm overflows in Yorkshire earmarked for investment in the next two years are a drop in the ocean compared to the total of 2,200 in the county.