The blue plaque that appeared overnight on the MP’s office door.

MP receives blue plaque for dubious services to sewage

A blue plaque reading: ‘Sally Ann Hart 2019–2025, voted to allow excrement to be pumped into the sea’ appeared on the MP’s office door. HOT’s Erica Smith attempts to get to the bottom of the murky matter.

No one has come forward to claim responsibility though a number of similar plaques have appeared  in other constituencies – Jacob Rees-Mogg received one in North East Somerset, as did Anthony Mangnall in Totnes.

HOT has asked Hastings and Rye MP Sally-Ann Hart to comment on the blue plaque, but as yet there has been no response from her office. This August she was booed at a Clean Water Action protest on the beach at St Leonards after she voted against a House of Lords amendment proposed by a crossbench peer to reduce dumping in waterways and reduce the ensuing ecological damage.

The plaque appeared overnight last week on the door of the Conservative Party’s constituency office in Theaklen Drive, St Leonards, where the MP holds her Hastings surgeries.

Local XR activist Charmian Kenner denied that XR was responsible but said: “Sally-Ann Hart’s vote shows she does not see the dumping as a public health emergency nor takes the ecological emergency as seriously as she should.” She also called out what she said was the disparity between water company profits and their investment in infrastructure.

Howard Seaton from the Clean Water Action Group also said that they were not responsible for the plaque but: “CWAG applauds the activist who put the blame where it lies. We must make sure Sally-Ann Hart is held to account for her actions.”

The House of Lords amendment set no date for stopping the release of sewage but would have toughened enforcement by the Ofwat watchdog and the Environment Agency. The environment bill was passed with a less demanding government amendment replacing the House of Lords one.

You can read more about local actions to stop sewage polluting our sea by following this link.

This is an amended version of the article which appeared in HOT last Wednesday with due attribution of comments and a request for comment by MP Sally-Ann Hart.

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