STEVE COOGAN has accused United Utilities of "greenwashing" and "PR spin" as he criticised the company for putting sewage into Lake Windermere.

The I'm Alan Partridge star joined a protest outside the North West water company's offices near the lake. He called on the government to compel them to clean up England's largest lake, over paying huge dividends to shareholders.

He told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "United Utilities have a big PR machine and they put nice fancy offices up like this and say we're working together with the people of Windermere but it's all a smokescreen to distract attention from what they've been doing over the last 30 years, which is putting treated and untreated sewage into Lake Windermere.

"It's to such an extent that there are toxic levels of algae, there are algae blooms that show the nitrate levels are like through the roof. And they've been doing this year on year."

He added: "They have been paying out record dividends to shareholders, there's no excuse for this. We're telling them to stop putting sewage in the lake and take out what they put in."

Coogan said the company should not be allowed to pass the cost of cleaning up the lake to bill payers but should deny shareholders a dividend for a few years.

He said: "Either they need to do it themselves, which I doubt they will because they are powerless to their shareholders, or the Government needs to act."

Asked how he could defend dumping untreated sewage into the lake, Chris Matthews, of United Utilities, told the programme: "We are taking this problem extremely seriously as part of a huge investment programme."

He told the show that customer bills will be increasing to help fund the programme.

PA

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