Sheffield councillors call out utility companies and tell them to sort their mess
Utility companies were heavily criticised during a discussion of a motion at a Full Council meeting at Sheffield Town Hall last week.
Sheffield councillors called out a number of utility companies and their practices for digging up roads in peak times and sending sewage into the city’s rivers.
As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), a motion submitted by Sheffield Labour ahead of the council meeting explained that “repeated and often uncoordinated road works across Sheffield by utility companies causes disruption and frustration for residents”.
The motion said the solution would be the introduction of a Lane Rental scheme – these schemes allow councils to charge utility companies up to £2,500 a day when they dig up the busiest roads at peak times.
At the meeting, Coun Ben Miskell, who submitted the motion, said people in Sheffield are “rightly angry” after Yorkshire Water has been fined again for dumping sewage into the city’s rivers – including a major fine for polluting the River Don.
He said the chief executive had earned nearly £2million at a time when “bills are rising, leaks are wasting water and hosepipe bans are being enforced”.
He added: “Residents see the contrast all too clearly: sewage in our rivers, water gushing from burst pipes and bosses being rewarded while the public pay the price.”
Coun Miskell added that utility companies need to sort their mess – and it was not just sewage.
He also named Cadent and Northern Powergrid as companies that had closed off streets across the city for work recently.
From the Liberal Democrats, Stannington ward councillor William Sapwell told the chamber how Stannington was hit by Yorkshire Water’s failures in 2022 when a gas flood left thousands of homes without heating.
He said: “We now have a hosepipe ban in place despite several ongoing leaks that I am aware of in my ward, one of which I am told, is wasting water at a rate of two litres per second.
“Residents in my area are beyond frustrated.”
Coun Sapwell added the Lib Dems will not shut up about sewage dumping, and the uselessness of Ofwat as a regulator.
Coun Peter Gilbert from the Green Party told the chamber that “no single stretch of river in England is in good overall health”.
He said while Sheffield’s namesake river the Sheaf is in moderate ecological condition, the Don is rated poor.
Coun Gilbert added: “The motion before us points out residents’ frustration with large payments to bosses overseeing failing public services.
“There is a solution to that… Take it out of private hands.
“If the Labour Party were actually bothered about this they would listen to the 84per cent of the public that want to see water in public ownership.”