Raw sewage meeting to be full house in Shrewsbury

Campaign group Up Sewage Creek and Shrewsbury Town Council are hosting the meeting at Theatre Severn on Monday, February 27. All the tickets for the 250-seat Walker Theatre have been snapped up.

Claire Kirby, from Up Sewage Creek, said: "We're really pleased that we're at full capacity. It goes to show people want to be informed. If we lose the river, what have we got left?"

Up Sewage Creek and the council have invited politicians, water company bosses, environmental experts and even 80s pop legend and river campaigner Feargal Sharkey.

River pollution in Shropshire recently caught the attention of Mr Sharkey, who said he believes it will be "a massive issue" at the next election.

It is understood that Shrewsbury's Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski will not be in attendance, after accusing local councillors of giving constituents "misinformation" over the issue.

Claire said: "Perhaps Daniel is a little bit misguided for not wanting to attend with it being a big issue going into the next election."

A Severn Trent spokesman said recently: “We are absolutely committed to improving the health of our region’s rivers and we are working closely with communities across Shropshire to make progress, including through the creation of a bathing quality river in Ludlow.

“We’re continuing to invest £100m a year to go even further in improving our region’s rivers and are moving faster than sector targets to improve river quality. Last year we pledged that our operations will not be the reason for unhealthy rivers by 2030.

“Based on Environment Agency (EA) measures called RNAGS (Reasons for Not Achieving Good Status), current data from the EA shows that water companies are responsible for 24% of RNAGS in England, while other sectors are responsible for the remaining 76%.

“In the last year we have made progress and already reduced Severn Trent’s contribution to rivers in our region not achieving good environmental status to 18%, putting us ahead of our plan to reach 0% by 2030.”

The Shrewsbury river pollution meeting will begin at 6pm next Monday.