Following the recent devastation of part of the Trent by serious pollution, the following on line petition had been set up to call for greater (ie meaningful) fines, in an attempt to provide an actual deterrent, rather than merely an acceptable cost to polluters. Can I urge people to sign?:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/pollutionfines/

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its a good call,but should also include that all monies go to the EA instead of gov central funds ..thats what galls me ..


signed....

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

I understand the feeling behind it but that petition isn't going to achieve a thing, the 'More details" bit looks like it was written by someone writing into Blue Peter, the pollution [incident] doesn't appear to relate to the Trent incident in the sentence before, and must be cited correctly.

---------- Post added at 03:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:49 PM ----------

and yes presumably the fines just go to pay for an MP's duck house anyway!

I would willingly sign it but I'm not advertising all my particulars on the net, especially my home address, that's inviting trouble........

they dont show your address

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

hi' Jeff. Good luck with the petition, I just signed in.Terry

It's not my petition Terry - I just read about it in Angling Times so thought I would draw attention to it - but thanks anyway!

As regards the issue of where the fines go, I sympathise with people's sentiments, but I think you're in danger of missing the point. Fines go where they go, same as all legislation - that's another matter. As I understand it, the purpose of this petition is to address the point that the fines/penalties are paltry and therefore no deterence to big companies - which is true. Fines for such things are just an occupational hazard for big companies. It only really hits home when the fines are big, or convictions mount up ("fit and proper person" status gets lost, meaning its hard to get future consents), or custodial sentences are imposed. The underlying issue is that environmental "crimes" are just not taken seriously enough.

All political parties want to play the environmental card and all parties are kicking into gear now for next year's General Election, so they are in "receive mode" ("receive mode" for a politician that is, which admittedly isn't saying much, but you can but try...)

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just adding a voice to bump this back up, we should keep this at the forfront for a while

---------- Post added at 05:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:08 PM ----------

Just reading that through barbusbruce . Wasn't it the EA at fault here. I thought it came from one of their sewage treatment plants>

WP


no it came from a waste disposal company,which discharged the contents into sewers then that knocked out the sewerage plant .....

Stoke trent river pollution big fish kill

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

OOPs Thanks for putting me right on that.
so it was Red Industries the EA who are responsible.
how bad was the damage?