INDETERMINACY by John Cage
Performed by Stewart Lee, voice, Tania Caroline Chen, piano and Steve Beresford, piano and objects. Saturday 1st Feb. 2025, 3:30pm, National Centre for Early Music, York.
– a one-off event to highlight the sewage pollution of the River Derwent SSSI in Malton and Norton, by Yorkshire Water, North Yorkshire Council and the Environment Agency.
Click here for details and tickets.
The Malton, Norton and Old Malton Pumping Plan is an operational plan that sets out the actions of the Multi Agency Partnership of Yorkshire Water, North Yorkshire Council, and the Environment Agency, in response to the regular flooding events in the towns of Malton and Norton, and the village of Old Malton. The Partnership receives additional practical support from North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue and North Yorkshire Police.
The cost to the taxpayers of North Yorkshire of operating this ‘temporary’ plan between November 2023 and end February 2024 was just over half a million pounds (£508,000). The estimated cost of permanent engineering to do away with this temporary plan was £4million in 2018.
Malton and Norton Pumping Plan:
Operating costs November 2023 – March 2024:
North Yorkshire Council flood alleviation work: £130,750.
Environment Agency involvement: £363,000.
+ Removal of concrete blocks from Norton Road: £3,000.
+ Cost of new plastic bollards: £12,000.
Total £508,750
This ‘temporary’ plan has evolved over the past twelve years into the default response to the flooding which occurs with increasing regularity. The ’emergency’ aspect of the plan relates to the need to activate and operate the pumping plan at speed because the permanent engineering solutions proposed by consulting engineers, Arup, in 2015, designed to end dependence on the disruption-causing pumping plan, have been ignored.
Many of the flooding problems experienced by the towns today result from the way the flood defences were constructed in 2003, which trap and prevent surface water from draining into the river.
The Arup report 2015, Executive Summary states:
“Sewer flooding from the overloaded combined sewer network makes it particularly unpleasant for the residents and businesses affected;
The residual risk of surface water flooding in Malton, Norton and Old Malton is potentially too high for the emergency response procedures developed by the Multi-Agency group to fully make sense as a long-term solution, if an economically viable investment now (October 2015) could save costs in the longer term;
Relying on temporary pumping in emergencies is not an ideal arrangement because:
- the pumps are not absolutely guaranteed to be available when required;
2. there are no formal ‘well’ points connected into the drainage systems in which to deploy them; [this point is both nonsensical and impractical]
3. the arrangements still result in disruption to local residents and the local transport network.”
One of the most disturbing aspects of the Malton and Norton pumping plan, and a fact that is generally unknown to the public, is that it pumps the contents of the Yorkshire Water combined sewers into the river. Up to twenty portable pumps (plus the tankers in the photo) were deployed from early November 2023, to end February 2024, to propel the contents of the Yorkshire Water sewers into the river Derwent. The River Derwent is “designated a nationally important Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and as a European Special Area of Conservation (SAC) due to its importance in supporting a wide range of plants and animals.” Source: Natural England.
None of the extra sewage pollution caused by the multi-agency pumping plan is monitored or regulated. If you think the Yorkshire Water sewage spill data listed on this website is bad, add to that the tonnes of sewage pumped into the river by the pumping plan.
The multi-agency partnership of North Yorkshire Council, Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water is knowingly and deliberately (and without a licence to discharge) polluting the river Derwent SSSI SAC by operating the ‘temporary’ pumping plan.
Yorkshire Water pumps raw sewage (untreated sewage) into the river Derwent SSSI from its combined sewer on Church Street, Norton via permanent pipes under the highway and railway line. NB: For clarity, this is NOT the Norton Church Street CSO. Anyone interested should walk to the Norton side of County Bridge (on the eastern footpath) and see for themselves the sewage detritus (used sanitary towels, toilet paper etc) hanging from the bushes on the riverbank next to the unlicenced and unmonitored outlets.
Yorkshire Water sewage ‘spill’ data for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Environment Agency EDM Records (Links to individual years)
Malton, Norton and Old Malton Pumping Plan and the Arup report