Council Votes To Get Rid of Bottled Water

12.07.21pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 20th Feb 2008

A Liberal Democrat motion calling on the Council to stop buying bottled water for its meetings and offices and to use tap water instead was adopted last night by Bath and North East Somerset Council.

Cllr Sarah Bevan spoke in favour of tap water. The debate has also been in the national news recently.

Councillor Sarah Bevan (Peasedown), who moved the motion, said, "This motion was an initiative by the Liberal Democrat Group and we were delighted that it gained the support of Councillors from other Groups. The Council has established a principle against the purchase bottled water and can now move forward to look at the implementation of this motion.

"We have been working on this issue for several months and the adoption of this motion is very timely, given that within the last fortnight major campaigns have been launched encouraging people to drink tap water and ask for it in restaurants.

"The Council should not be spending public money on bottled water when we have perfectly good tap water, which is hundreds of times cheaper, does not need to be transported and does not need the packaging which must be recycled or ends up in landfill or as litter.

"Personally I find bottled water morally unacceptable. There are great concerns about the wider issues such the effect it has on the water systems of areas where bottling takes place and the marketing strategies of bottled water companies. Our Council has taken a lead on this issue, to do something practical locally and set an example."

Councillors voted 32 in favour to 29 against the motion, sadly the Conservative Group did not support the final motion.