Hello Steemians,
I live in Buxton, Derbyshire, in the U.K. It is the home of Buxton Mineral Water. The Lion's Mouth fresh mineral water spring at St. Anne's well, has been providing fresh water to residents and visitors for hundreds of years. People travel from a variety of distances for the water, because their local tap water is, "Undrinkable".
A few weeks ago, the water was turned off, for the fourth time and I went to the Town Hall to find out why it was off again, and for the third day on the trot. They were extremely vague and dismissive. The water actually stayed off for nine days, during which I approached them another two times, as well as visiting the local paper, The Buxton Advertiser, to report the issue.
On the eighth day. I started a campaign (and a petition) to find out why Nestle had been sold rights to our water, and for some transparency and accountability. The water was on, on the ninth day, when they saw that over 3,000 peope had signed the petition, overnight. Over six days, we received over 11,000 signatures. This is a link to the petition:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/the-buxton-water-scandal
I have applied for some information, under the Freedom of Information Act, which I am waiting for. I made four separate requests for information, namely, all details of the council and Severn Trent Water's agreements, regarding the addition of chemicals to the drinking water, all deails of deals and agreements between Nestle and Buxton Town Hall/ council, Full disclosure on the routes of all water supplies in and around Buxton and all details and a copy of The Buxton Enclosure Act, 1772, which is supposed to protect the water from being turned off.
I have been approached by various people, from newspapers:
to local folk of all levels of involvement and with a plethora of local knowledge. I am awating some files and paperwork, which might help me along with this.
The aim is to protect the water from companies like Nestle, who have a track record for being, well, sick and twisted, for want of better words (suggestions below, please ha, ha). I have issues with what is added to drinking water. I have issues with Buxton Town Hall selling off the water rights and I have issue with a lack of transparency and accountability from the people 'EMPLOYED' to do a job, on behalf of the people.
I would obviously appreciate any signatures added to the growing number, because this may not seem important, but it is key, I think, to halting Nestle's developments and drilling. This is a big battle and I don't expect it to be over soon.
Thank you for reading :).