South Tyneside Environmental Protection - STEP

We are environmental campaigners based in South Tyneside who want to protect and save our green spaces, trees and flora and fauna for our children to enjoy.

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

"Environment Agency accused of 'lip-service' on sewage crisis after downgrading 96% of serious pollution incidents."

Yep you read that correctly, not only has the EA being allowing water companies to mark their own homework they've being joining in the fun down grading the most serious pollution incidents to get them off their books, close the files and hope no-one notices.

Well, they've been caught.

https://t.co/iWiXAHf0z2

[Whitburn Neighbourhood Forum @WhitburnForum]

South Tyneside lost this when officers did not produce a robust defence of the councillors' decision to refuse planning permission for the Whitburn Lodge on the grounds of a lack of sewage treatment capacity
Inspectors ignored the million tonnes of sewage discharged at Whitburn

[Brian May's Save Me Trust @AnneatSaveMe]

Defra Trail Hunting Consultation
🦊 If you do one thing for wildlife today, please do this NOW
Please share this post and encourage your friends, family and colleagues to take part before the consultation closes on 18th June.
Together, we can make a difference for Britain's wildlife.
Have your say here: https://t.co/v1OJdf2zDg
Save Me Trust Link https://t.co/GqZZqhjp91

[Whitburn Neighbourhood Forum @WhitburnForum]

Happy anniversary to OFWAT and NWL.
It is over a year since OFWAT agreed that NWL could produce a plan to reduce sewage discharges at Whitburn rather than pay a £15.7 million fine
The plan was to be published on 8th December 2025
To date, no fine, no plan and no prosecutions.

[We Own It @We_OwnIt]

90% of countries in the world can own their water but not us. People in England want their water back. But the government is protecting private water profiteers.

It’s time to give the public a say. @Feargal_Sharkey wants you stand up and be counted. Sign the petition: https://t.co/NdwoKq7k3o

[Wildlife and Countryside Link @WCL_News]

🚨 England's poorest communities risk losing out on the trees, green spaces and wildlife they need most.

New research for Wildlife & Countryside Link shows that proposed Biodiversity Net Gain exemptions could disproportionately affect deprived communities, where access to nature is already limited.

From de minimis loopholes to proposed 0.2ha and brownfield exemptions, the areas with the least greenery stand to lose the most.

This is not the route to good, sustainable development or proud, thriving communities. People deserve homes surrounded by trees, nature and healthy green spaces.

The Government should strengthen Biodiversity Net Gain, not weaken it.

Read the report: https://t.co/S451CMdu1h

[Wildlife and Countryside Link @WCL_News]

📰 The news that Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) loopholes risk England's poorest communities being deprived of trees, green spaces and wildlife picked up a lot of attention last week - and rightly so.

People deserve homes surrounded by trees, nature and healthy green spaces and new development should help create greener, healthier places to live.

Read the report and find out more 👇

[Chris Hinchliff MP @CHinchliffMP]

Housing campaigners representing thousands back my call to ban developer donations.

Corporate donors don’t hand out cash lightly, they want results.

The housing crisis is too serious to let big money tilt the balance to greed over need.

Kick developer cash out of politics.

[Rosie P 🦇 🦎 🕷️ 🦭 🐌 🍃🌳🚲💧 @RosieP4]

How to stop Government harming nature (but still solve the housing crisis): our NEW councillors' toolkit.

Please send it to your local councillor and ask them to read it. Councils are starting to push back on unsustainable housing targets, so they will not be alone.

https://t.co/a4RF779aAj

[Chris Hinchliff MP @CHinchliffMP]

We can’t keep piling endless demand onto finite water supplies.

Families can't be left without essential water while AI data centres burn through it.

Madness.

We need long‑term solutions that put living standards first - that means public ownership of water.

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

‘Save the planet’ through old school environmentalism that focuses on ecosystems, photosynthesis and the protection of land, water, nature and wildlife, rather than the government’s crass logic solutions of net zero that only serves to feather the nests of greedy corporations.

[Rosie P 🦇 🦎 🕷️ 🦭 🐌 🍃🌳🚲💧 @RosieP4]

Bureaucrats admit the plans may destroy 'nationally recognised sites, landscapes and historic environments' as well as damaging 'biodiversity and water resources'.
Officials also confess his schemes may increase 'air emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, noise and vibrations, light pollution, dust and soils.'
They also say these negative effects could 'occur repeatedly' and 'have impacts over the short, medium to long term', as well as during construction”

https://t.co/8TsNQLwDKu

[Jonathon Porritt @jonathonporritt]

Predictably,latest King’s Speech devoid of any nature content!
But Zero Hour’s new initiative for a Nature and National Security Bill could help put that right. Do please get behind this!

[Rosie P 🦇 🦎 🕷️ 🦭 🐌 🍃🌳🚲💧 @RosieP4]

I think this is your 5th 'reset'? Each time you think you know what voters want but you don't. In particular when it comes to nature and the environment. Voters do not want devlopers to be allowed to pay cash-to-trash habitats and create 'new nature' miles away. Voters do not want countryside in the Green Belt relabelled as misleading 'grey belt'. And voters do not want the sky high targets you're imposing on rural areas.

[Danica Priest🦇🦎🦇🦎🍃💚🍃 @DanicaPriest]

You were elected to protect the environment and green belt but instead you gave us yimbyism and ‘build baby build’ that no one asked for. If you want to save the Labour Party start with saving our green spaces.

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

Oh dear....

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

Brilliant, brilliant exposé by Alex Thomson @alextomo on @Channel4News last night, blowing the lid of the corrupt, and it is corruption of the @EnvAgency allowing water companies to walk away from criminal charges, jail time, unlimited fines and all for nothing more than a slap on the wrist and some blood money paid to local charities.

It's time to put an end to this nonsense, it's time to hold people to account, it's time to send the fat cats to jail.

https://t.co/ph5PFXUph5

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

"Protesters criticise beach's water pollution."

Well done the good people of South Shields. Bravo. 👏

But have you signed the petition yet?

250,000 here we come.

https://t.co/kZz1cXBtz3

https://t.co/rJGyC0nB0P

[Chris Hinchliff MP @CHinchliffMP]

There’s been a conspiracy of silence on the cost of biodiversity loss.

Ecosystem breakdown is one of the gravest threats to our security.

If we don’t invest in nature recovery now, we’ll pay many times over in food price spikes, flooding, and instability at home and abroad.

[Daniel Lismore @daniellismore]

They keep saying migrants are the reason you cannot get a home.

Sit with the numbers for a second.

There are 242,000 people in England facing the worst forms of homelessness. Around 32,000 asylum seekers are in hotels. That is the figure they want you to picture. That is the image they repeat.

Now look at what they leave out.

There are 998,000 empty homes in England. Over 265,000 have been sitting empty long term. Entire streets. Entire blocks. Locked up while people are told there is no space.

Then there is land. Not green fields. Not the last bits of nature left around towns. Brownfield land. Former industrial sites. Places already built on and abandoned. Reports show almost 1.5 million homes could be built there.

So the truth is uncomfortable for them.

This is not a shortage created by migrants. It is a system that leaves homes empty while people sleep in temporary accommodation. It is a choice to ignore brownfield land while threatening green space. It is a failure of policy not an invasion of people.

The numbers do not support the story they are selling.

Every person in temporary housing and every asylum seeker in a hotel could be housed without touching a single piece of greenbelt. The capacity already exists. The land already exists. The homes already exist.

Blaming migrants is easier. It is louder. It gets headlines.

Fixing the system would require actually doing the work.