Revolting residents refuse to keep grinning and bearing it
Libraries, Avonmouth and Matilda by Roald Dahl
“‘Cause if you’re little you can do a lot, you
Mustn’t let a little thing like, ‘little’ stop you
If you sit around and let them get on top, you
Won’t change a thing” — Matilda, Naughty
In the Roald Dahl-based musical Matilda, a group of bullied 5 year olds manage to outwit the cruellest headmistress ever to have lived, Agatha Trunchbull—hammer-throwing Olympian and the terror of Reception class.
Strength and unity, helped them to overcome. But it was when no hope for the future remained that this little girl who’d spent her entire life being despised by her parents was able to focus all her energy into unity and action. She also happened to be very clever; by the time she was five years old she’d already read a whole host of Dickens and Shakespeare with the help of her local librarian.
At a resources scrutiny meeting just before lockdown, I was sat next to a librarian as it happens. I had gone armed with 26 group-sourced questions about the new library strategy. The librarian next to me had no questions. They weren’t allowed to ask anything or even speak up. They said to me though, after I introduced myself, that a few of them read my Tweets and followed what I did. I understood that their jobs were on the line if they said anything.
So, I said something. I spoke where I could on what I understood.
Where I can amplify people, I do that.
But I don’t work for a newspaper or a magazine. I write for myself. It’s when I see those with huge platforms not making things right or trying to fix things that I feel it’s even more imperative for the rest of us to step up.
And here’s one place that really needs some stepping up, our waterways.
The Environment Agency’s recent report into water companies and their polluting habits has been quite an eye opener. As the Tweet below says, they are calling for prosecutions and jail time for offenders.
The damning report found that “the environmental performance of England’s 9 water and sewerage companies was the worst we have seen for years.” One of those companies, Wessex Water, received the second lowest rating of two stars. This means it has to make significant improvements.
The owners of Wessex Water are also building an arena in Filton and are creating a whole new little town in South Gloucestershire. When Dato Hong Yeoh, the owner, was interviewed by the ex-Bristol Post editor Mike Norton in 2019, there was not a single word about sewage flowing into our water ways.
When Norton asks the chief of YTL about how his company’s faith and family shape their business decision-making, Yeoh replied:
“Our ethos is very simple. We are a Christian family and the concept is about stewardship. Because the family are all Christians, we have a unity of purpose from one generation to another. We take a long-term view of life and the communities we create.”
Two years later, Wessex Water discharged raw sewage directly into the River Avon 23,524 times for a total duration of more than 150,000 hours.
The Bristol Post’s coverage of Yeoh even included praise for the long-term commitment this Malaysian company has shown and that they just “had a meeting with the water regulator and he finds that we are quite unique.”
The sewage treatment plant on Kings Weston Lane owned by Wessex Water was the site of an explosion that killed four people just a year after the interview, in December 2020. Resident, Ian Robinson, has been telling as many people as he can about the dangers and pollution in Avonmouth.
As he told Bristol247, before they were both elected, he gave Bristol mayor, Marvin Rees, and Bristol North West MP, Darren Jones, tours around Avonmouth in his car, with one of the stops being the sewage treatment plant.
Ian is one of the little guys. He’s the opposite of those in power and running the newspapers. He gave me a tour of Avonmouth as well. I haven’t written all I can about Avonmouth yet; I’m one of the little guys too. While there is only so much I can do, I choose to write and call out these hypocrisies and power imbalances.
To quote Matilda again, the girl who persevered and succeeded: Just because you find that life’s not fair it, doesn’t mean that you just have to grin and bear it, If you always take it on the chin and wear it, Nothing will change. (Matilda)
Change always happens. It always comes. We are not the innocent victims of our stories. We can change them. It begins through connections, scrutiny, and writing.
Those in power will call it naughty. I call it democracy.