Newspaper column 1 April 2021 - the road to recovery

This week has seen further restrictions ease as we continue on our roadmap to recovery. From Monday the ‘stay at home’ rule has ended but many restrictions will remain in place. People should continue to work from home where they can and minimise the number of journeys they make where possible, avoiding travel at the busiest times and routes.

Outdoor sports facilities such as tennis and basketball courts, and open-air swimming pools, are also now able to reopen, and people will be able to take part in formally organised outdoor sports.

Finally, and a step that will be welcomed by many ahead of the Easter weekend, outdoor gatherings (including in private gardens) of either 6 people (the Rule of 6) or 2 households are also now allowed, making it easier for us to meet with our friends and families outside.

These easings are only possible because of the continued success of the vaccine programme and it is crucially important that we continue to stick to the rules and do all we can to prevent another wave of the virus.

In more good news, and following what I wrote in my column last week about my work with the Ocean Conservation All Party Parliamentary Group on Monday I was pleased to see the Government confirm that measures to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows will be put into law.

This follows our backing of Philip Dunne’s Sewage Private Members Bill in 2020 and DEFRA agreeing to working with him on shared ambitions to tackle high levels of sewage in our rivers.

This is fantastic news and now a number of key policies will be made law. This will create three key duties to oversee some of the changes needed to improve our water environment:

· a duty on government to publish a plan by September 2022 to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows;

· a duty on government to report to Parliament on progress on implementing the plan; and

· a duty on water companies to publish data on storm overflow operation on an annual basis.

Along with work started last year by the Storm Overflows Taskforce, to bring together government, the water industry, regulators and environmental NGOs to accelerate progress in this area, these are all really positive steps to reduce sewage getting into our waterways. There will still be more to do but these are all really positive steps and ones I am happy to have been involved with bringing into being.

As ever, if you need my assistance with anything then my team and I are here to help. Please get in touch with me by email at Cherilyn.mackrory.mp@parliament.uk , or by telephone on 01872 229698.