Campaigners in Teignmouth have taken part in a mass national lobby urging the government to clean up the water industry.

The MP for Newton Abbot and local councillors joined the Friends of the River Teign, Surfers Against Sewage and other supporters at Teignmouth Yacht Club on Sunday (October 25).

Similar events, demonstrations and other campaign activities have been taking place around the country, co-ordinated by Surfers Against Sewage.

They’re calling for key changes to the government’s planned legislation on the water industry, including a ‘road map’ for putting the companies back into public ownership.

The Clean Water Bill includes tougher and more effective monitoring and enforcement, including the creation of a single ‘super-regulator’.

But Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) argue that the legislation, in its current form, doesn’t go far enough, and will end up protecting the privatised water industry.

They say the system must be restructured in a way that puts public health and the environment first.

Stuart Reynolds, chair of Friends Of the River Teign (FORT), said: “SAS’s key demands are ones we support - we think the main priority is that local communities need to have a say on where their money is being spent and transparency on what gets fixed when.

“Stronger regulation and accountability are important (and we support the need for a single regulator), but ultimately there needs to be a change of culture to put the river rather than profit first.”

He said FORT’s investigations into pollution incidents at Gales Hill and Bitton Brook show that the current system is not serving the public interest.

Martin Wrigley, speaking at the event, argued that imposing cash fines on water companies for pollution doesn’t lead to a change in their behaviour; ‘”for them it’s just the cost of doing business”.

He’s promoting the idea of fining polluters in shares instead: forcing them to issue and hand over a block of their own stock, which would reduce the share price and equity value.

As a supporter of FORT, he’s already on board with the Clean Water Bill campaign, and told the gathering: “I will be delighted to represent your views in Parliament as loudly and vociferously as I can.”

Those views will include those of 17-year-old environmental campaigner Lucas Brendon of Newton Abbot, who met with Mr Wrigley on Friday as part of the national mass lobby.

He presented the MP with a letter from local teenagers, which said: “We should be allowed to swim in Teignmouth, paddle in the River Teign and surf at Dawlish without worrying about sewage, our health, or who is being allowed to get away with it.

“We don’t want to grow up accepting polluted water as part of British life.

“Please use your position to demand a stronger, more ambitious Bill so that generations of young people after us can swim, surf and play in clean waters.”

Friends of the River Teign are urging anyone who supports their campaign to write to their MP: Martin Wrigley for the Newton Abbot constituency, or Mel Stride for the Central Devon constituency.