I’ve spent a week with my daughter in Camelford, Cornwall. We watched the programme on the dreadful poisoning of Camelford’s water supply nearly 40 years ago. My daughter tells me that there are residents who still don’t trust the water. Read the following and you’ll understand why.

One mistake led to 20,000 people in the Camelford area having their water poisoned. A lorry load of aluminium sulphate had been poured into the wrong access point at a water treatment site. The error was due to sloppy oversight of the compound. The lack of investigation once residents started complaining of terrible symptoms was totally inexcusable. People were told not to worry and to boil their water, which was the worst advice they could’ve been given. The following cover-up is utterly shocking. People have died - post-mortems showing highly raised levels of aluminium in their brains – yet the South West Water Authority has not been held responsible. Many animals died too, ducks, pigs, sheep and cattle. The accident happened just before the privatisation of the water industry, something the then MP for North Cornwall, Paul Tyler, blames for the cover-up.

Have lessons been learned from this terrible tragedy? We’re all too well aware of the dreadful pollution of our rivers in Wales. And it’s not just the water industry that’s wanting; Radio 4’s consumer programme ‘You and Yours’ highlighted the National Audit Office concerns over ECO4, the Government scheme that, in collaboration with private energy companies, offers poorer households help with lowering their energy bills through insulating their homes and installing heat pumps and solar panels, something that’s necessary.

In their report they wrote: “Poor installation work has resulted in an estimated 22,000 to 23,000 homes with external wall insulation fitted under the scheme (98% of the total) and 9,000 to 13,000 homes with internal insulation (29% of the total) having major issues that need fixing. A small percentage of these installations also pose immediate health and safety risks.”

The culprits according to the National Audit Office, “include an under-skilled workforce, with work being subcontracted to individuals and firms who are not competent or certified; uncertainty over which standards apply to which jobs; and businesses ‘cutting corners’ when undertaking design and installation work.”

The bad companies ought to be sued. These homes urgently need money spent on them to repair the ‘improvements’, which should be done using Government funding. And a new scheme must be devised, using properly qualified trades people. There’s enough money as the UK Government has just announced £2.5 billion for building small nuclear reactors at Yr Wylfa on Anglesey.

I can list many reasons why nuclear power won’t provide the silver bullet to our energy crisis. They range from the huge costs with regular overspends and delays, to safety concerns. But the biggest no-no is still what to do with the waste. Last year I criticised the proposed Geological Disposal Facility in Cumbria under the Irish Sea. (16 October 2024) On 12 November this year in an Opposition Day debate, the SNP spokesperson on Energy Security and Net Zero, Graham Leadbitter, explained why the SNP is opposed to nuclear power. He dropped a bombshell when he said that this Geological Disposal Facility would cost and eye-watering “£69 billion at current prices.”

The Labour Party and Plaid Cymru, who both favour new nuclear at Yr Wylfa, should listen to the SNP and the Green Party. Learn the lessons from the past on nuclear, from accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima to crazy costs. Nuclear energy was never “too cheap to measure” as Tony Benn had to acknowledge. We need energy sources that are truly green.