Save Windermere featured on Good Morning Britain, 29 May 2023, ahead of a demonstration against sewage pollution on the Glebe in Bowness, attended by celebrity supporters of the campaign; Steve Coogan, Lee Mack & Paul Whitehouse.

The Financial Times has obtained official data revealing that only four water companies faced prosecution by the environment watchdog for breaching overflow permits between 2018 and 2022, despite the occurrence of hundreds of thousands of sewage spills during that period.

Eleven billion litres of raw sewage were discharged from a sample of 30 water company treatment works in one year, new research suggests.

Celebrities backing the Save Windermere campaign will attend a public demonstration on the waterfront next week.

Campaign founder Matt Staniek will be joined by Steve Coogan, Joe Lycett, Lee Mack and Paul Whitehouse at The Glebe in Bowness-on-Windermere on May 29 to host the demonstration asking for an end to sewage discharge into Windermere.

United Utilities accused of ‘making mockery’ by raising dividend in face of sewage spills and continuing leakages.

The decision by United Utilities to hand more than £300m to shareholders has prompted fresh anger over water companies’ multimillion-pound payouts, at a time when the industry is under pressure to spend more on tackling leaks and stopping sewage pollution.

Steve Coogan, Joe Lycett, Lee Mack and Paul Whitehouse have allied with Save Windermere to protect the World Heritage Site. Founder and Cumbrian zoologist Matt Staniek says the lake is under threat.

Ministers were warned about the dangers of private equity taking over the water industry in a briefing that has been kept secret for 20 years, the Guardian can reveal.

English water companies will pay an estimated £14.7bn in dividends by the end of this decade, while making customers pay for new investment to stem the tide of sewage pollution in seas and rivers, analysis for the Observer has revealed.

I don’t think it is an apology at all. I think it was somebody trying to strategise: “We are going to treat our customers with even more contempt than we’ve ever done before.”

We’ve paid and provided all the funding needed for the water companies to meet their legal obligations, to build, operate, maintain sewage systems for 30 years. They’ve had all the funding.

The water industry has refused to fix the sewage crisis unless improvements can be funded from increased household bills....

If the apology from the private water monopolies was intended to waft away the stink surrounding the issue of sewage in rivers and coastal areas, it doesn't seem to have worked.

An average of 824 discharges per day requires rather a fatberg of an apology.

The fact that their trade body Water UK has said that they are ready to spend £10bn tackling spills also drew criticism from campaign groups and the opposition. That's because households in England are going to pay for improvements via higher water bills.

Clean water activists including surfers, swimmers and anglers criticised water companies for passing the £10bn bill for investment, which should have been carried out years ago, on to customers.