How publicly-funded projects are creating expensive environmental disasters

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A new report published today has found that expensive, publicly-funded anti-pollution projects are creating environmental disasters.

The report has accused United Utilities and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) of ‘wasting millions of pounds of public money’ on land management schemes in the Lake District, resulting in environmental disasters.

The ‘United Utilities at Haweswater’ report found that a £3 million publicly funded tree planting project at the RSPB’s Haweswater reserve in Cumbria had resulted in many trees failing to grow, due to being planted incorrectly.

The report also identified “microplastics from the tree guards breaking down and polluting the watercourses”, which supply drinking water to 2.5 million people in Northwest England.

Furthermore, the report found that United Utilities and the RSPB ignored warnings from local communities that the scheme would fail before the money was wasted and that relations between the local communities and United Utilities and the RSPB are now at a near complete breakdown.

The report’s author, AB O’Rourke, said: “United Utilities is regarded as the country’s worst water polluter and here it is, with the help of the RSPB, pushing farmers into untested schemes that demand rapid radical changes without doing any small-scale trials beforehand.

“Nobody seems to be held responsible when the schemes fail and millions of pounds worth of public money is wasted. United Utilities has created an environmental disaster and then washed its hands of it.”

O’Rourke added: “The RSPB has been calling for ‘crimes against nature’ to be written into law. If what it did with United Utilities at Haweswater isn't a crime against nature, then I don't know what is.”

The report builds on the work of the ‘Better Outcomes on Upland Commons’ project, which was instigated in 2014 by King Charles when he was Prince of Wales to improve the management and conservation of the English uplands.

In this report, the King wrote, “I become increasingly distressed when I see opportunities to improve the condition of the upland habitats, their communities, businesses and stunning landscapes frustrated due to disagreements.”

The latest study at Haweswater indicates that, sadly, the situation has deteriorated even further since then.

*The Utilities Uncovered Consultative Panel (UUCP) is a community of individuals who lease or manage land owned by United Utilities. The panel was formed in August 2023 in response to unilateral decisions by the United Utilities which fundamentally alter how people live their lives on moorland owned by the water company. The UUCP’s mission is to provide insights, feedback, and recommendations on decisions by United Utilities that potentially threaten local communities, as well as protecting key water sources from pollution and environmental degradation. For more information or to download the report please see: www.UUConsultativepanel.co.uk*