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Pollution of the River Crane

Pretty black and white,then.Let it back up to heathrow and be sued for millions or dump it in the river for a fine of a few grand and a slap on the wrists.
 
Disgraceful, will be interesting to see if they are fine in accordance with such a blatent uncaring attitude.
 
Whatever the costs of the fines and the costs of putting things right are they wre pretty irrelevant as the water company's budget for these incidents and pass the costs of to us in the bills.
What is required is personal prosecution of executives as happens in some European countries and in some cases the USA.
At the least they could deduct the fines from the executives bonuses.
 
Pete Marshall said:
Whatever the costs of the fines and the costs of putting things right are they wre pretty irrelevant as the water company's budget for these incidents and pass the costs of to us in the bills.
What is required is personal prosecution of executives as happens in some European countries and in some cases the USA.
At the least they could deduct the fines from the executives bonuses.
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Spot on Pete, nail on the head and all that. Are the AT considering such actions do you know?

Cheers, Dave.
 
I am sure that the Fish legal team are just waiting for the right case. It would take lots of cash to bring cases that really punished individuals rather than companies under UK law, but perhaps under EU law it becomes more possible. They would want to get a really water tight (sorry about the pun) case to set a precedent.
They have being doing a fine job up in Scotland using the FOI act to force the Scottish government to produce very embarrassing evidence about fish farming and I could see this developing into private prosecutions mainly because Salmon anglers up there and down in the rest of the UK may have the cash to help out.

Establishing personal liability of company executives for damage to the environment is a whole new concept for English and Scottish law. When you see that even the Rail companies whose executives were clearly negligent over many years and this lead to serious accidents and many deaths, yet they still didn't get personally prosecuted in the UK; it shows just how far we have to go. After all, one of the reasons that European companies have brought our water companies (and the Scottish salmon farming industry) is that the laws in their own countries prevent them doing the stuff they want to do. They can buy a UK company, do more or less what they want to do under UK's weak regulatory system and take the profits back home. Thames Water is a prime example of this. First the national German energy company (it would be illegal for a German energy company to also own a German Water company) brought it at a knock down price and then sold it on to an Australian bank!!! You try buying the German Water company and see how far you get:)
 
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Spot on pete! the sale of our national utilities to foreign companies is really coming home to roost now, with ridiculously high energy bills and water companies with absolutely no regard for the source of their product!!! No energy or natural resource should EVER be allowed to be sold to foreign interests!!
 
By the way, the bank that owns Thames Water is very pleased with its return from it. This year their profits as a bank were down by over 20% (how very sad), but their profits from managed assets, such as Thames Water, were up by 6%. This is pretty much the case with most of UK's Utilities that are owned by various overseas organisations. profits for the organisations are down in line with the economic downturn, but returns from there UK assets help make up for this. Ever felt we may be being ripped off?

Check out Private Eyes back pages for regular coverage of how UK's utilities have become cash cows for companies all over the world. (and when will Ian get his knighthood?)
 
When you consider all the pathetic government cock-ups that happen with monotonous regularity year after year, government after government....the cynical and barely legal 'money for the boys' moves openly made, with seemingly no sign of being held to account, and the frightening number of utterly inept politicians dragging us ever further into trouble, it's totally depressing. It's made worse by the fact that when a promising looking member of that sorry lot does pop up, it frequently becomes clear that they are only in it as a means of becoming exceedingly rich in the private sector once their often brief governmental career ends. It would seem any thoughts of integrity or the good of the country are kicked into touch very quickly on their way up...if in fact they were ever considered as a serious proposition.

Mr. Hislop needs to work harder Pete...he hasn't managed to have a single one of them beheaded yet, as far as I know :D

Never mind...stiff upper lip chaps.

Cheers, Dave.
 
Well if the River Trent cyanide pollution from Red Industries near Stoke-on-Trent on October 2009 is any indication, I would not expect any impacting fine or action for some time.
 
David Gauntlett said:
Mr. Hislop needs to work harder Pete...he hasn't managed to have a single one of them beheaded yet, as far as I know :D

Never mind...stiff upper lip chaps.

Cheers, Dave.
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As rather admitted by last weeks 50th anniversary issue of the Eye, with a cover stolen from the late great Peter Cook, who when asked why he was starting a satire comedy club back in the sixties said he wanted to emulate..
"those wonderful Berlin cabarets... which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the outbreak of the Second World War"
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Still, at least constantly exposing them does give some satisfaction......
 
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Thanks for the update David, heard stories of barbel in the ash some years ago and also where it runs near the garden centre in shepperton up until last october it held plenty of chub up and over 5lb. Sadly all gone now :(
 
At least some Judges are find these type of offences enough to send directors to prison. See this case. 15 months for a company owner illegally storing tyres including loads right next to the Severn at Stourport.

These companies that deliberately flout environmental laws not only damage the environment they also undercut genuine operations. In this case the bloke also put peoples lives at risk by the creation of serious fire hazards. It is only a pity that it took so long to bring a prosecution. The EA had spoke to the bloke loads of times and given warnings. IMO they should be quicker to prosecute and less worried about the attitude of the Daily Mail types who resent any regulation in favour of the environment.
 
It is nice that they are putting their hands in the company pockets to help restock the river, but it just shouldn't happen.

Yes TW helped out with the Wandle, but it's not the river it was, i used to know of some good chub haunts that people never went to, after the pollution, the fish just seemed to drift away from these, i haven't found the shoals like i used to.

How nice would it have been for them to put the environment before the airport. Oops i'm dreaming.
 
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