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Smith in the sewage

Environment Minister, Angela Smith MP, will be challenged today [1] to explain why Northern Ireland's environmental watchdog has given up on the environment as new evidence was revealed. In a series of letters obtained by Friends of the Earth [2], the Government's Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) says it will not object to dozens of planning applications in areas with overloaded sewage works:

• In Bangor, where the human waste of 60,000 residents is pumped untreated into the sea, EHS says it will not object to a housing development even though ‘the discharge fails to comply with the EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive’ and ‘is considered to contribute to the non-compliance with the Bathing Waters Directive’ at Ballyholme beach. [3]
• In Ballymena, EHS has made no objection to new housing even though it states that ‘there have been numerous fish kills in the Braid River immediately downstream of Ballymena sewage works’ which suffers from ‘severe overloading’. [4]
• And in Cookstown EHS says that although the sewage treatment works are ‘grossly overloaded’ it will not exercise its right to object to new housing developments which will ‘exacerbate the current adverse environmental impact’ on the Ballinderry River. [5]

Planning permissions have now been granted in all these cases. [6]

Director of Friends of the Earth, John Woods, said:

"The public are understandably mystified as to why Northern Ireland's environmental watchdog is failing to stand up for the environment. The appalling truth is that EHS is acting under instructions from Environment Minister, Angela Smith, to keep quiet [7]. In this she is compounding the errors of her predecessor, Dermot Nesbitt, who initiated this shameful policy [8] at the behest of the construction industry. [9]"

Mr Woods continued:

"The Minister has the power to remove the gag from EHS and to use her powers to refuse planning permission on the grounds of pollution [10]. I am meeting Angela Smith today to demand that no development takes place in locations which are in breach of pollution law until the sewage works have been properly upgraded.'"

These revelations follow an official complaint by Friends of the Earth to the European Commission against Water Service for discharging raw sewage at numerous locations in Northern Ireland in breach of European law. Water Service enjoys Crown Immunity from prosecution in the Northern Ireland courts.

John Woods commented:

"Water Service has failed to provide basic sewage facilities; EHS is unable to prosecute it because Water Service has Crown Immunity; and EHS is not objecting to housing developments which will exacerbate already 'grossly overloaded' sewage works thus causing further breaches of the law by Water Service. Environmental protection in Northern Ireland, already decades behind Great Britain, is going backwards."

Friends of the Earth has submitted a file of this new evidence to the European Commission to back up its official complaint.

Notes

[1] (back) Meeting at DOE headquarters on 1 July 2003 between Angela Smith MP and John Woods, Director (Northern Ireland), Friends of the Earth.

[2] (back) Information obtained from Department of the Environment via Environmental Information Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993 pertaining to locations throughout Northern Ireland including Bangor, Ballymena, Cookstown, Antrim, Derry/Londonderry, Tandragee, Downpatrick, Portrush, and Ballyclare.

[3] (back) Letter from Water Management Unit, EHS to Divisional Planning Office, Ballymena December 2002.

[4] (back) Letter from Water Management Unit, EHS to Divisional Planning Office, Downpatrick, December 2002.

[5] (back) Letter from Water Management Unit, EHS to Divisional Planning Office, Omagh, December 2002.

[6] (back) Confirmed by telephone conversation with respective planning offices.

[7] (back) Parliamentary Written Answer 24 Feb 2003 to Lady Hermon MP

[8] (back) The policy approach referred to at [6] was announced in a speech to the Assembly on 7 October 2002 by the then Environment Minister, Dermot Nesbitt MLA.

[9] (back) Letter from Angela Smith MP to Friends of the Earth April 2003: 'I understand that the former Minister had a number of meetings with representatives of the industry including the Construction Employers Federation...'

[10] (back) Planning Service is part of the Department of the Environment and therefore one of Ms Smith's responsibilities.