Sewage overflow

 I see that our party's leader, Ed Davey, is calling for a "sewage tax". While agreeing that sloth in tackling the problem of sewage overflow on the part of private water companies - even our own not-for-profit  Welsh Water to a considerable extent - is reprehensible, I am not sure that a tax is the answer. It would not drive companies to build new or improve existing treatment works. Commercial undertakings would no doubt treat it as a business expense and pass the cost on to the customers, who have no control over the water company. Householders and businesses cannot even shop around in a monopoly situation, except in extremis by moving to Scotland where water supply and sewage processing are still under public control.

But developers and local authority planning committees have to own up to part of the blame. I can recall at least one Neath Port Talbot planning meeting where the committee voted to approve a housing development against the advice of Welsh Water who insisted that the existing infrastructure could not take it. I doubt that my experience is unique.