Lake pollution a national scandal, blasts Coogan

STEVE Coogan has described sewage pollution at Lake Windermere as a 'national scandal' as he and fellow comedian Lee Mack spoke out to raise awareness of the issue

- ANDREW BARDSLEY

The Middleton-born star joined forces with the Would I Lie to You panelist to demand that privatised water companies remove sewage from the Lake District beauty spot, England's largest lake.

The Alan Partridge star told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "It is a national scandal. The privatised water companies, since they've been privatised, United Utilities, who is the biggest wastewater polluter in Windermere by a country mile, have paid out £72 billion in investor dividends whilst basically not maintaining the integrity of the lake. They've been polluting it since its inception.

"What we're saying is they should reduce it to zero, there should be no pollution in Windermere, and they are putting out a lot of obfuscation to try to dilute that message." He added: "It's a simple message. Stop putting sewage in the lake and remove the pollution what sewage is already there."