Coffey Up The Creek

Saskia Rowlands writes:

The Environment Secretary has a river on her doorstep which is riddled with deadly bacteria, warn green campaigners. Local residents found water at a beauty spot in Therese Coffey's constituency contained 50mg of e.coli per litre of water. The Government safe swimming level is 10mg. In dangerously high volumes, the bug can cause an infection linked to kidney failure and prove fatal.

Activists have renamed Martlesham Creek which feeds Suffolk’s River Deben, S*** Creek. They unveiled a blue plaque there which reads: “ Therese Coffey MP – voted to block a law requiring water companies to dump less raw sewage in our waterways and seas.” Nine blue dots or fewer is a safe level for swimming. Woodbridge Climate Action Centre’s Eamonn Nolan said: “People should not be swimming in this river. We found noticeable levels of e.coli in all sections.”

It has also emerged the Environment Agency found 894.13 nanograms of cancer-causing PFA chemicals per litre in a spring near Mrs Coffey’s Suffolk home. Anything over 100ng per litre needs immediate action, according to the government’s Drinking Water Inspectorate. Mrs Coffey has been accused of not instigating laws to stop dumping of sewage into waterways – which happened 300,000 times last year. A Department for Environment spokesman said it has set the strictest targets ever on water firms to cut discharges and deliver the largest infrastructure programme in their history.