Matt Staniek cannot stop thinking about sewage. The director of the Save Windermere campaign has been working for three years to prevent waste flooding into England’s largest lake. In July 2023, the company with responsibility for managing the water quality in the lake, United Utilities, set up an information centre in the town of Windermere.
Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter To Staniek, that was a red flag. For the last year he has been holding a Greta Thunberg-style sewage strike, spending an hour every Monday camped out outside the centre. Big Issue joined him for week 39.
Matt Staniek on his weekly sewage strike at United Utilities, Windemere. Image: Exposure Photo Agency Just moments into the strike, a local man comes up to Staniek and greets him with a fist bump. He talks about how he remembers growing up 40 years ago and “you could see everything in the lake”.
Now? It’s like “pea soup”, he says, and calls the water company responsible for managing the lake “United Futilities”. It’s a sign of the anger at the pollution of a popular and much-loved icon. That anger flows through other bodies of water in and around the UK too.
Staniek takes his stand every Monday to keep the issue in local consciousness and to peacefully make a point that the vast majority of people can agree with: large amounts of sewage should not be pumped into bodies of water, treated or otherwise..