Wylam Clean Tyne

29/04/2026

As part of the Earthwatch 'Freshwater watch' campaign, we sampled Howden Burn and Stanley Burn last weekend for Phosphates and Nitrates. These are chemicals typically found in excess levels where there is pollution from agriculture and sewage treatment. Both samples revealed raised levels of nitrates but overall levels in the Tyne in our area was satisfactory.

No tests were carried out on this round of sampling for e coli - a significant danger to humans from sewage pollution and which remains an ongoing concern to our group due to the number of untreated sewage outlets in our stretch of the river.

You can see the results on the Earthwatch website

Click the button below to access your event page. Here you will be able to download instructions, complete the research test, and upload your WaterBlitz results.

09/04/2026

https://www.channel4.com/news/government-needs-to-recognise-failure-of-water-privatisation-feargal-sharkey?fbclid=IwVERDUAREcgRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xNzM4NDc2NDI2NzAzNzAAAR6OopHVCefs1tGJV5d24qw9Isq8cxTlzp88Z5ac3pmmovZ-Wq84CqdqDojjeA_aem_BlzIca1oriSfifmF49Lu9g

We spoke to the singer and prominent environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey, and began by asking him to tell us more about the campaign to nationalise water companies

09/04/2026

Private sector ownership of the water industry monopolies has failed. A consistent record of sewage spills in our seas and rivers, with chronic failure by the Environmment Agency and the regulator to control pollution. Significant profits go to to overseas owners and most significantly, we pay much higher bills than for instance in Scotland where water is still in public ownership.

Let's take the first step to sorting this out. Please sign the petition calling for a binding referendum on returning the water industry to the public sector.

Hold a binding national referendum on whether the water industry should be returned to public ownership. Water is a basic human necessity; we believe our privatised system has failed, so the public should decide who owns and controls it.

12/03/2026

If you haven't seen "Dirty Business" on Channel 4 catchup you should!

Please sign the petition to clean up our rivers and coastal waters.

We're sick of it. Sick of the lies, sick of the greed, and sick of a system rigged against us. This is a scandal and this dirty business must end. For more than 30 years water companies have put corporate greed and profit before public health and the environment.    Our privatised water sy...

23/02/2026

This is a photo of Heather Preen. Heather was eight years old, playing on a beach in Devon, when she was infected by e coli 0157 - a particularly virulent form of the bacteria in sewage. She died two weeks later.

Her story forms part of a programme on Channel 4 tonight - "Dirty Business."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEz6sYhYtio

Wylam Clean Tyne is very disappointed that the new Water Bill proposed by the government is not strong enough to prevent events like this occurring again. Water companies will still be allowed to self-monitor. i.e. 'mark their own homework.' Additionally Water Companies are being allowed to raise prices so that by 2030, water bills IN REAL TERMS will be double what they were in 1989 whilst not enough is being done to clean up our rivers and coastal waters.

We anticipate that the three part series will cover many of the issues that our group is concerned about in its efforts to clean up the Tyne and preserve it as a valuable green space for the village so that we can allow everyone to enjoy it without the risk of being poisoned as Heather was in Devon.

20/02/2026

Wylam Clean Tyne would like to remind people of the Parish Council Consultation meeting tomorrow about the Neighbourhood Plan. We feel this is very important if we are to make any progress on cleaning up the river Tyne. The Rivers Trust will be presenting their river model.

If you have about 10 minutes on Saturday morning, it would be great for your support at the Falcon Centre. We’re trying to designate the River and its catchment in the parish as a “Green space“ in the neighbourhood plan. By doing so we then aim to attach rights of rivers to it. This would protect it from harmful development.
This is the only game in town at the moment in terms of realistic River protection. Local feeling really is essential in achieving the protection.
Please come and complete a questionnaire indicating your support for Rights to Rivers (such as the right to be free from pollution, and the right to a native biodiversity et cetera et cetera)
We will have a table describing our goals there.

22/07/2025

Yesterday the Government published its report on the water industry - the Cunliffe report. It is a big document and Surfers against Sewage have summarised the main points as follows.

"This is huge.

Today, the Independent Water Commission released its final report – the biggest review of the water industry in over 30 years. And it’s dominating today’s headlines.

This moment – this national reckoning with a broken, polluting water system – only exists because of people like you. From paddling out and protesting to emailing your MP, you’ve helped drag this issue to the top of the political agenda.

And it’s working. The government is being forced to do something about the sewage crisis.

We delved into the 460 page report (so that you don't have to). And uncovered good news and bad. Here's what we found:

What's in the report that we welcome?

✅ A National Water Strategy – long overdue and essential for joined-up action.

✅ 8 new regional water planning bodies – a step toward public involvement, but only if they’re given real power.

✅ A new public health target in water law – something we’ve long demanded to better protect swimmers and communities.

But here’s the catch: the report doesn’t go far enough. While it contains some strong recommendations, it fails to tackle the root cause of the crisis — a profit-driven water system.

What’s missing? And why it's a huge problem.

🚫 No real structural reform. Water companies will still be allowed to prioritise shareholders over the public.

🚫 The report tweaks water company licences – but keeps profit as a key goal.

🚫 No use of Special Administration powers to fix failing companies.

🚫 Fails to confront the toxic financial culture enabled by Ofwat.

🚫 Still allows self-monitoring – the same failed system that’s let pollution thrive for decades."

Surfers against Sewage have described this a "Putting lipstick on a pig" We agree. Do you?

22/07/2025

This is extracted from a report by the sewage campaign network. It shows the remuneration of water company Chief Executives in the last ten years in £000's so yes, the CEO of Northumbrian Water has been paid nearly £11M over the last ten years!

In overall terms NW is bottom of the list of executive pay which is headed by Severn Trent which has spent nearly £48M in the same period. Truly staggering figures which show the extent to which the water industry is out of control.

Yesterday the government published the Cunliffe report on the industry which contains some changes but does not tackle the inbuilt problems. We will do a separate post on that.