London Playbook PM from Politico

SEWAGE FOR DAMAGES: Along the few kilometers the River Lim weaves between Uplyme village and the seaside town of Lyme Regis in Dorset, there are multiple points sewage can flow in. Human, animal and manufactured waste trickle in from numerous directions alongside the tributaries of fresh water. The sources include sewage works, home and agricultural slurries, and roads, to name a few.

Trolling the water: One of the culprits is a porthole tucked under a bridge right before the river meets the English channel. When an underground cathedral used for sewage storage fills faster than management firm South West Water can pump and treat it, the porthole belches the overflow out into the sea. Overflows are meant to be restricted to rain deluge events, which fill the infrastructure quicker. But the porthole — and others like it along the river — discharged for around 1,300 hours in 2023, up from around 1,200 in 2022.

Water warriors: The River Lim Action Group has been investigating pollution in the water and sounding the alarm about it. As a result, South West Water has upped its measurement and maintenance efforts, but more is needed to improve the current “moderate” cleanliness classification from official watchdogs. “We’ve been getting special treatment because we’ve made such a stink,” says Vicki Elcoate, a driving member of the group. “But we need a thorough, systematic solution to all these problems.”

Issue politics: The national political parties have picked up on concerns about similar sewage problems across Britain. The Liberal Democrats were the first to weaponize it against the governing Tories in target seats. Labour is now making noise too and the Tories are upping their game. Ministers handed Dorset council £4.63 million to tackle some of the land runoff issues affecting Poole Harbor, for example, and ministers have begun to talk tough about failing water bosses. No local Conservatives were available to talk to Playbook PM, however. 

Votes for water: Constituencies around Dorset are prime Lib Dem targets in the so-called “Blue Wall” of southern Conservative heartlands. Davey is hopeful of seizing Dorset council as a staging post during local elections this week and is using the sewage issue as a battering ram. Last month he visited West Bay beach just east of Lyme Regis alongside Giles Bristow, CEO of the Surfers Against Sewage campaign. The beach had a number of pollution alerts in 2023. 

A sodden shame: The pollution amounts to “hundreds of thousands of local tragedies in a national picture of shame,” Bristow tells me as we walk along the River Lim from Uplyme to the sea. Thatched cottages are dotted along a gravel path high above the river, the track bordered with bluebells and wild garlic flowers. The trail crosses the stream then opens out to a small meadow. Hidden in the trees is a South West Water treatment plant. I’m sure I detect a subtle smell of rot in the breeze.

Closed for sewage: The path becomes a single lane road flanking the river as we head towards the urban center of Lyme Regis. Bristow points out a pipe draining road surface water into the stream. There’s a sign on a bridge crossing an old fjord: “Reduced water quality is predicted. Swimming and paddling is not advised.” Children used to paddle in the area in summer, but now sewage fungus grows on the plants and rocks. 

The open seas: In the center of Lyme Regis the river flows through a mill then cuts deep between the  beautiful old buildings. There are a couple more bridges under the coastal road and footpath before the water hits the sea. The overflow gate sits low beneath the final bridge, its chin out of view under the water. Around the corner is Church Cliff Beach, which was stripped of its safe swimming designation because sewage was pooling at the shore. 

It’s not that bad, honest: “The River Lim has good water quality but that can sometimes be impacted by periods of heavy rainfall,” a spokesperson for South West Water said. Campaigners point out 10 of the overflow discharges occurred during the summer of 2022. The spokesperson added: “The most frequent and largest change to the water quality comes from agricultural runoff from fields, upstream of any of our infrastructure.”

Message discipline: Along the coast, the cliffs at Seatown rise up then fall towards the West Bay beach Davey visited to illustrate the sewage issue. But there’s a mismatch between national and local Lib Dem messages on sewage. Nick Ireland, Lib Dem group leader on Dorset Council who stands a good chance of becoming council leader this week in what would be a historic win in a Conservative stronghold, argues voters aren’t raising the sewage on the doorstep. 

Retail politics: “Across the South West it is a big thing and the politicians are jumping on the bandwagon,” Ireland tells me over lunch at the Posh Partridge cafe in Dorchester. But he insists voters are more focused on the cost of living crisis, ailing NHS services and demands for new housing. 

Nevertheless: It’s clear the national Lib Dems reckon polluted water is a vote-winner — and the Greens took the Lyme Regis council seat from the Tories at a 2022 by-election, which suggests it’s resonant, at least in affected wards. “It’s an issue that has captured the imagination of the whole country,” Bristow argues. Elcoate adds: “People will vote for the parties who support efforts to clean all this up.”