Singer joins Save Windermere campaigners

Feargal Sharkey says water companies have received enough funding to build a "properly functioning" sewerage system

Singer Feargal Sharkey joined campaigners in calling for a clean up of a lake on Monday.

The environmentalist joined Save Windermere's weekly protest outside water firm United Utilities' information office in the Lake District town.

The water company said it invested billions in keeping water clean, but campaigners believe not enough is being done to tackle sewage pollution in the lake.

Mr Sharkey said: "If we cannot figure out how to preserve something as precious as... Windermere, what chance does any other brook, pond or lake have?"

Storm overflows are used in times of heavy rain, when the sewer system is at capacity. When this happens, the overflow will discharge dilute sewage into rivers.

Save Windermere said the discharge of sewage into the lake by United Utilities had significantly contributed to a degradation in water quality at the site.

Environmental problems at the lake in recent years have included the presence of harmful blue-green algae blooms, which can make humans ill and prove fatal to animals.

In November 2023, just 3% of the samples collected from the lake's shoreline met minimum standards under UK legislation.

The campaign group is calling for the removal of treated and untreated sewage discharges into Windermere, which is England's largest natural lake.

Save Windermere supporters meet every Monday outside of the United Utilities Information Centre

Save Windermere founder and ecologist Matt Staniek invited Mr Sharkey to join them in a post on X, formerly Twitter, recently.

Speaking at the protest, Mr Sharkey criticised the amount water companies, including United Utilities, paid shareholders and called on them to invest more in tackling sewage pollution.

He said: "You cannot have a leisure and tourist facility that has become nothing more than an open air septic tank.

"Every single river in England is polluted, not one escapes - and the source of that pollution is the water industry."

Mr Sharkey described his fellow campaigners as "decent, honest people" doing their best to make a difference.

"These people have had enough," he added.

"They put their trust in the system and in return they've had as much effluent verbally from our water companies as is in our lakes and rivers.

"It's got to stop."

Conditions at the lake have been described previously by Save Windermere as "catastrophic"

A spokesman for United Utilities said it had invested billions in safe and clean drinking water, adding that the reduction of storm overflows was a new government requirement.

He added: "We invest three times what we pay our shareholders every year and that investment is into our infrastructure."

The company said it was planning to invest more than £3bn in tackling problems linked to storm overflows, with the aim of reducing spills by 60% by 2030.