The weather has warmed up these last few weeks, and as we look towards summer, people understandably are keen to use our waterways. 

We're lucky in Warwick and Leamington to have two rivers running through our towns and villages, which are well-loved by so many who use them for recreation throughout all months, but particularly during warmer periods. 

I have long been outraged, and I know I'm joined by plenty on this, by the foul dumping of sewage in our rivers, leaving normal users understandably not keen on taking a dip. In 2024, we saw Warwick and Leamington polluted by sewage 294 times, lasting a total of 1966 hours. That is the equivalent of over 80 days, day and night, of non-stop sewage. 

While this is going on, what have the bosses of the companies who do the dumping been getting? Huge bonuses. The Chief Executive of Severn Trent got £3.2 MILLION including a £584,000 bonus in 2023/24 despite the 454,155 hours of sewage the company dumped in 2024. 

 The Government has been very clear that the era of profiting from failure is over. This was underlined when Thames Water, the UK's largest water company, was fined £122.7 MILLION earlier this week for breaching rules over sewage spills and shareholder payouts. 

We cannot and will not accept that residents should suffer waterways filled with sewage while bosses get whopping bonuses. They are there to deliver a service, not line their pockets and we have and will continue to make this very clear.  

In local sporting news, we have seen success in women's football both locally and internationally. 

It was a fantastic achievement by Leamington Ladies FC to win the league and cup double in their first season. We all know how much women's football has grown since the Lionesses lifted the Euros trophy in 2022, but the real legacy will be growing the women's game at the grassroots level and creating opportunities for women and girls to play football. This is exactly why it's so good to see the Leamington Ladies side being brought under the Leamington FC umbrella and playing their home games at the same ground as the men. It seems that decision has already paid off after such a successful first season. 

We have seen some incredible talent come from our towns and achieve huge things in women's football: Jess Carter played for Warwick Juniors in her youth and now is a regular in the Lioness team and plays in America for Gotham FC, who have just won the Champions Cup. This is in addition to all her achievements while at Chelsea and of course playing for England. 

Jess's and Leamington Ladies FC's success shows us the importance of building on these momentous achievements by women footballers and inspiring a new generation of girls to play the game by ensuring access to sports facilities and playing fields and equal access to football in PE lessons at school.   

The Women's Euros take place this summer and I know there will be thousands across our towns and villages tuning in, some of whom I'm sure will be future footballers we will see representing our towns and some further afield. 

As always, please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any issues or concerns you would like to raise with me. I can be reached at [email protected] or on 01926 882006.