From number ones to number twos as clean rivers campaigner Feargal Sharkey brings his 'Stop the Sh*t Show’ tour to Northamptonshire

After popping into Wellingborough, where he met up with Labour candidate Gen Kitchen, the former Undertones frontman met party activists at Geddington Ford where the River Ise passes through the village.

Clean water campaigner and keen fisherman Mr Sharkey, president of SERA Labour’s environment campaign, met Labour’s Kettering constituency candidate Rosie Wrighting to highlight the pollution in the River Ise.

Mr Sharkey was inspired to campaign for clean rivers after he witnessed sewage drifting past his feet in the water where he was fly fishing.

Speaking in Geddington, he said: “Here I am talking about poo on a bridge. I’ve had number one records and I’ve run some of the biggest record companies on the planet. I retired 12 years ago and here I am standing on a bridge talking about poo.

"Last year Anglian Water spent over 3,800 hours dumping sewage into the local rivers and a matter of a feet away, at the sewage works, last year 723 hours worth of sewage was dumped out of the sewage works into the river and there’s no need for it. It shouldn’t be happening.”

Ms Wrighting said: “This is the village that grew up in. I’ve got many many memories of playing in the ford and after 14 years of Conservatives our riverways are quite literally a mess. Raw sewage has been pumped into rivers like this one and still there are children playing here in the summer.

"On a personal level it breaks my heart to see what has happened with our waterways. If I’m lucky enough to be elected I look forward to working with SERA and cleaning up our waterways.”

Geddington resident Kathryn Brown lives opposite the village’s pumping station and has been monitoring when spills occur due to equipment failures.

She said: “It used to happen a lot. It happened quite often but, to be fair, they came out within a couple of hours, switch it off and do repairs. Since then it has been 90 per cent better, but when it breaks down it pumps sewage into the brook and after it floods there is toilet tissue and wipes left in the ford and the berm field where people picnic, and it stinks.”

Sarah Pask, one of the Geddington village flood wardens, has to close off the berm field alongside the river to pedestrians and the ford to traffic.

She said: “This year has been much worse than before, it’s been so wet. We regularly report sewage. People walk in the field, play in the water. It’s a beautiful area. They have no idea there’s effluent there.”

Parish councillor John Padwick (Lab) added: “As a parish council we think we may have to put up signs to warn people of sewage.”