A YouGov poll has found that 60% of people believe water company chief executives should go to prison if they are found to be responsible for serious water pollution incidents. This was among the findings of a survey of 2,000 people for campaigner, Good Law Project. Only 21% disagreed.
The survey also found that a huge majority of people (82%) had heard something about sewage discharges from media coverage, and 53% blamed water companies for sewage discharges into our rivers and seas.
The news came as a farmer who damaged a stretch river was jailed for a year and told to pay £1.2m in costs, which led to renewed calls by campaigners on social media for water company bosses to bosses to face similar punishments.
The farmer, John Price, ripped up trees along the banks of the River Lugg in Herefordshire in an act the judge at Kidderminster Magistrates' Court described as "ecological vandalism on an industrial scale”. He admitted seven charges, including failing to stop pollution entering the water, in the prosecution brought by the Environment Agency and Natural England.
Comments