Brent and Harrow Green Parties call for urgent action on the 'disgraceful' exposure of residents to pollution from the Wealdstone Brook

 

Wealdstone Brook at 8am on March 31st 2022

Brent Green Party has got behind local people campaigning about the toxic contamination of the Wealdstone Stone by raw sewage and have been joined by their colleagues in Harrow Green Party.

There has been much buck passing between the agencies involved, Brent Council, Thames Water and the Environment Agency, and action delayed by questions about particulars when the agencies themselves should be able to see what is in clear view - as well as smell it from some distance away.

Bastôn De’Medici-Jaguar, Green Party candidate for Brent Council's Kenton ward said:

I have visited and witnessed the state of the river, along with Willesden Brook. The situation is absolutely unacceptable. Residents are precluded from enjoying their homes due to the foul smell coming from the Brook as a result of the pollution going on. This has been ongoing for quite some time now and none of the relevant authorities are doing anything to address the issue. The responsibility is just being passed from one agency to the next whilst residents continue to suffer. It is basic human rights, I think, that these residents should not have to endure things as they are. It is also a health risk. As the Brent Green council candidate for the area, I renew my calls to the three organisations (Brent Council, Thames Water and the environmental agency): the situation demands immediate attention, solution and investments needs to be made to ensure that this does not happen again.

Adding her voice to the campaign, Emma Wallace, coordinator of Harrow Green Party, said:

The Wealdstone Brook runs from Wealdstone in Harrow (where it gets its name), first emerging above ground at Kenton and running past the bottom of a number of gardens into Woodcock Park and the borough of Brent, past Wembley Park tube station and finally, joining the River Brent.  The current toxic state that Wealdstone Brook has been allowed to descend into is unacceptable, negatively impacting both the local environment and Brent and Harrow residents' lives.  It is disgraceful that people are being exposed to sewage film and chemical pollution in one of their local rivers.  It is a basic requirement of living in a civilised society that we have healthy and sustainable waterways to support our local environment, for humans, plants and animals.  Someone urgently needs to take responsibility for cleaning up the brook - be that the local water board, Thames Water; the Government's Environment Agency or Brent and Harrow Councils - ensuring that this health and safety emergency does not happen again.  There have been recent reports in the news of water companies allowing high levels of untreated sewage spilling into our waterways - the government needs to take much more stringent action to ensure that the water companies are held to account and clean up our rivers for good.