A BBC news item reported that a Tory minister of the Crown had advised then Westminster Parliament that new separate surface water sewers across England would cost in excess of some £600 billion, and therefore, it was not appropriate to further limit combined sewer overflows, as their lordships had requested.

The privatised sewerage providers started to then whine about how they were finding £3bn per year to improve matters.

No one competent in the technical arena of surface water management, as far as I am aware, has ever suggested that a new separate surface water sewer pipe system is the way forward, so this is a misleading of the Westminster Parliament, and looks like a cover for excess profit issues by the minister.

To make matters worse, the private purveyors of sewage into the watercourses and beaches, appear to be suggesting a cunning financial plan to deal with the problems of today, lasting 200 to 300 years.

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Allowing for the additional effects of increased rainfall due to climate change suggests that the privatised sewerage companies of England expect to be permitted to potentially increase the net outfall of sewage into watercourses and onto beaches for some twenty generations or so.

To state the obvious, if the volume of intense rainfall entering the upstream system, exceeds the downstream system carrying capacity, then a volume buffer is required, between the point collecting rainfall and the downstream sewer/watercourse carrying limit.

This is often referred to as a Sustainable urban Drainage System, or SuDS, and which often will include some form of natural water treatment. Water butts on downpipes, permeable paving overlying storage in driveways and roads, grassed swales and ponds, are all typically part of the measures required.

Scotland would appear to be worryingly ahead of at least 85% of the UK in sustainable technical approaches to surface water sewerage, but still somewhat shackled financially to the more laissez-faire approaches of the privatised English sewerage authorities via the Barnet formula.

The cost for England of making their surface water sewerage system sustainable is more likely to be an order of magnitude less than the minister tried to make out ie £60bn, and, allowing for climate change, a 50-year implementation might be considered appropriate. Scotland may well be looking similarly at a 50-year implementation, but with the Scottish currency equivalent cost of about £5bn.

Stephen Tingle

Greater Glasgow

SHOULD Margaret Ferrier get a prison sentence? Should she be forced to stand down as an MP? She continues very regularly to ask questions in the Commons in the interests of her constituents.

Perhaps she let her sense of duty overcome precautions regarding Covid risks. Not a defence that could be made for Boris Johnson and others having fun at parties in Downing Street. He was in charge of setting up the rules then blatantly broke them and lied about it. He was fined £50. No prison sentence.

Unlike now, on September 26, 2020, when Margaret Ferrier had symptoms and took a test, results weren’t available quickly. Despite rules at that time restricting numbers meeting together socially, there were no options available to attend the Commons remotely. She was speaking in the Commons on September 27 and it was only after it that she found out her Covid test was positive. There were no special facilities where she could self-isolate. MPs were being told if they had a positive test result they should go home, which is what she did.

Her actions may seem naive if not reckless now, given what we have experienced since then. In her Monday article, Kirsty Strickland asks “…do we really want to see a woman with no prior convictions, who is accused of a non-violent offence, sentenced to time in prison?”

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Given the actions of others and minimal punishment received, there certainly seems no reason why she should receive a worse punishment. The answer must definitely be no to a prison sentence.

Jim Stamper

Bearsden

A GREAT piece by George Kerevan mapping out the first Edinburgh International Festival with Picasso’s White Dove (Edinburgh Festival has slumped from its heyday into cultural irrelevance, Aug 22).

How great it was that Ricky Demarco and his exciting contributions were highlighted. Having exhibited with him over the years we thank him for having the guts to pursue his vision of a better Scotland.

John Taylor and Jacki Parry Glasgow THE First Minister “does her day job” by going to Denmark to open up opportunities to increase trade, dialogue and relationships between our countries. Yet the yoon press can only give her pelters for being absent during a bin workers industrial dispute, a matter controlled by local councils. I am surprised that these so-called newspapers do not print in brown ink since their content is reminiscent of something similar.

M Ross

Aviemore