Here’s why women dressed head to foot in red were in Morecambe this weekend

Members of Extinction Rebellion Morecambe and Lancaster dressed in red unveiled the blue plaque on Morecambe prom as part of a national day of action across the UK.

Other plaques are expected to go up across the area to draw attention to places where sewage is being added to waterways.

The plaques highlight the government’s continued failure to tighten environmental regulations and stop profit-grabbing by water companies.

The plaques read: “David Morris MP abstained on a vote requiring water companies to dump less raw sewage in our waterways and seas 20th October 2021”The government’s failure to properly tackle the issue of sewage pollution has been hugely controversial.

Last summer over a hundred beaches were closed to the public after a series of sewage discharges by water companies left the sand and sea contaminated with human sewage.

Chelsey Needham spokesperson for the local campaign to have cleaner waters in Morecambe and Lancaster said: “After visiting a festival down south I returned home on the hottest weekend of summer to hear my family had been at the beach all day by the clock tower, and they couldn't believe their eyes, they were swimming with sewage.

"I still managed to grab a dip in the West End and didn't see any that day, but from other peoples stories I was lucky!

"It is like one of those memorable events that now stand out. I remember where I was that day and what I had been doing because of the shock and surprise of it!”

Lancaster City Councillors met with United Utilities back in September but will be inviting United Utilities back alongside the Environment Agency to answer a number of more specific questions raised by residents and businesses.

Meanwhile only 14% of the UK’s rivers achieve “good” ecological status with pollution from agriculture, human sewage, roads, and single-used plastics creating a dangerous “chemical cocktail” in our waterways.

In December the Environment Agency announced it was pushing back targets to clean up England’s rivers, lakes.

Caroline Cattermole, 70, member of the University of the Third Age Rowing group who row weekly at Skerton said: “We row regularly and worry since October 2021, when Conservative MPs voted down a proposal to stop water companies pumping waste directly into our rivers and seas.

"They justified this by claiming that the proposal was too expensive.

"These plaques shine a light on the government’s failure to protect our waterways, the natural world, and all of us.

"We need everyone who cares about our rivers and seas to stand up with us and speak out. Horrible to think we are rowing in a river contaminated with raw sewage.”You can join in by signing up to https://actionnetwork.org/forms/dirty-water or getting involved locally with the campaign http://joinxr.uk/mbxr.

There is also a local petition on change.org https://chng.it/ksrQLyD97C

A spokesman for United Utilities said: “The North West coastline has seen billions of pounds of water company investment over the last 30 years. This includes Morecambe Wastewater Treatment Works, which has had a multimillion-pound upgrade and now uses the latest technology to improve water quality in Morecambe Bay.

“Between 2020 and 2025 we will have invested £230 million into improving 184km of waterways. We won’t stop there, and from 2025 we will be going even further – with one of the biggest environmental improvement programmes ever delivered.”

David Morris MP declined to comment.

Lancaster City Council have been approached for comment.