A Vote for Rylands on May 4 is a vote for action, not gimmicks

I care about our environment, whether it is Princes Parade, Otterpool, our air, our rivers, or our seas.

I care so much, I am taking Southern Water to tribunal to discover how much untreated raw sewage they dump into our seas along our coastline. Knowing the amount of hours of undiluted sewage they pump into our seas is not enough, as it tells us nothing.

Today, 11 April, I appear in the Inews, as I want Southern Water to reveal how much sewage it discharges into local rivers and into our seas along our coastline.

This issue matters to me, as I, and many of my friends have become ill after swimming in the sea, after Southern Water have dumped untreated raw sewage into the sea along our coastline.

Southern Water has been required to fit its sewage overflows with event duration monitors  (EDMs) which show when and for how long an outlet has discharged.

These sensors provide real-time data to the public about spills in or near bathing waters with Southern’s Beachbuoy system. However, they do not monitor how much liquid flows past them. While water companies are meant to know how much sewage passes through their treatment works, they are not required to monitor how much they discharge.

It means that nationwide, neither regulators nor the public knows how much sewage is being pumped into rivers and seas.

However, that cannot be true. This is because in the Water companies: environmental permits for storm overflows and emergency overflows guidance, it makes it clear, a spill greater than 50m³ is significant. So how are they measuring 50m³? How do they know the spill is significant? If they can measure 50m³, they can measure, 100, 200, 500m³ surely…

As the article in Inews states

The stretch of coast from Dungeness to Folkestone has six officially approved bathing sites and welcomes more than 200,000 visitors a year, who bring in more than £30m to the local economy.”

That’s a lot of money for our local economy; which matters to those traders whose livelihoods depend on our coastline. They and you are worth fighting for, as are all residents of our fantastic district.

Southern Water,  has already discharged sewage into the sea where the bathing sites are located more than 250 times, and for more than 1,500 hours. But these two facts alone tell you nothing. What one needs to know is how much as they’ve dumping sewage into our seas and along our coastline since 1989. That’s 34 years

I swim in the sea locally, have done for years, as a child mainly in Dymchurch, except for when the sticklebacks and weever fish were out and about. 

Now I swim in the sea by Mermaid Cafe, when I can. Of course, Southern Water dumping undiluted raw sewage into the stop has prevented me from swimming on many occasions, as it has you and your children no doubt. So, instead of spouting off, or creating publicity gimmicks, like the local political party did a couple of weekends ago; which changes nothing, I decided to do something positive and find out how much raw undiluted sewage Southern Water throws into our seas locally.

I will do my best against Southern Water, who will no doubt put up expensive KCs against me. That though is not a concern. Once I have a date for the Tribunal, I will let you know.

Our environment matters to me, and I am prepared to fight for it, on the land, on the beaches and the sea.

Our sea and our coastline matter, as does the life within it. I, like many others do not want Southern Water treating it like a giant toilet, dumping their untreated cr*p into it. 

That’s why a vote for me matters, as I am a doer, not a talker, like the local political parties, who are doing nothing about this important environmental issue.

Vote Rylands

Folkestone Central 

May 4

Promoted & Printed by: Bryan Rylands, Flat D, Avenay Court, Sandgate Rd, Folkestone CT20 2LN