Hansard

I, too, thank Margaret Mitchell for securing the debate. It is an issue that gets a lot of people quickly upset and one that has come before the Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee on several occasions over the years, which just goes to show that feelings run high on the issue.

As recently as June this year, a petition was lodged on the Parliament’s website calling on Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ban the use of sewage sludge on land and look for acceptable alternative methods of disposal, as adopted in other European countries—countries that are not that dissimilar to the UK.

Although we need to get rid of the waste somehow, no one wants a stink at their back door or in their local area. What makes a difficult situation much worse is poor management of the spreading of sludge—such as spillage, particularly while transporting between locations—and failure to provide fair warning to local residents.

Research by the European Union into exposure to sewage sludge shows that there is no evidence that it causes health problems, aside from the impact of a strange and unpleasant smell.

We need to get this right and, when it goes wrong, apologies should be made and lessons learned. To resolve the situation, other ways of disposing of sewage sludge should be found as soon as possible. The fact that it has taken more than six months to compile the report is unhelpful. People’s hopes—particularly among those who face the problem—are for a much quicker response. I call upon the Scottish Government to take a good look at the issue with a view to finding solutions at the earliest opportunity.

I am concerned that, because of a lack of restriction, it is possible that the use of raw sewage might contaminate our land, too. We are familiar with how foot-and-mouth disease came about. If we use unsafe sewage on our land, it could be just as dangerous and have just as much of an impact on our agriculture industry as foot and mouth.

We need to take on board people’s concerns. We are not accustomed to strong odours and, when they occur, it is very unpleasant. That is particularly the case for people who live close to where the sludge is being sprayed.

What also concerns me is the lack of legislation on the use of sewage sludge. I am fearful that it may endanger people in the long term.