Ian Coghill: The RSPB's Intimate Ties to the UK's Water Firms [11 min listen]

Voices of the Countryside

If you sup with the devil, use a long spoon. The RSPB has an odd approach to polluters. If you are big enough and rich enough it may not be a deal breaker to pour untreated sewage into rivers and lakes.

United Utilities obviously has a very poor relationship with many of the people it is supposed to serve. This is not just because of how it treats longstanding shooting tenants, who have run their affairs exactly in line with UU's instructions, and delivered excellent outcomes for water quality, biodiversity and species abundance. It is a far bigger issue than that, important though that is.

The fundamental problem is pollution. It is beyond ironic that, in its statement announcing the end of shooting on its estate, UU majored on its commitment to water quality. Is it not incredible that the water company with the worst pollution record in the country has the cheek to even mention water quality?

People who fish, or swim in the northwest, or who just walk along river banks, or are interested in the wildlife of rivers, lakes and the seashore, are all, one way or another, the direct recipients of UU's mixture of incompetence and greed.