The Car Wash Association (CWA) is calling on retailers to contact their local MP as part of a new co-ordinated letter campaign to tackle unregulated car wash operations. The group wants to
get the government to implement some General Binding Rules (GBR) – which would make it an offence to discharge trade effluent from car washes into surface drainage.
The CWA has been working with the Association of Convenience Stores (CWA) on this action, which recently received a letter from MP Phil Woolas, who at the time was Minister for the Environment, recognising the damage that washing cars can do to the water quality.
According to the ACS, the letter also promised a consultation on GBRs by the end of this year.
The group says it is keen to see the GBRs become law because GBRs will make it easier for the environment agency to take action against illegal operations – the agency currently has to prove an act has led to a specific incidence of pollution.
However, Woolas was moved to immigration minister in Gordon Brown’s reshuffle last month, prompting the new campaign.
The ACS has therefore written to Woolas’ replacement Jane Kennedy and this week. It has also started co-ordinating the latest letter writing campaign where retailers write to their local MP and ask them to pass on their concerns to Miss Kennedy – and to urge her to confirm that she intends to honour the commitment to the GBRs consulatation.
A copy of a sample letter can be here – Latest Letter to MP template
More information on this and other issues in the sector will be available in the Car Wash feature in our December issue.
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