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1994 Strathclyde water referendum

Water privatisation referendum in Scotland

Field	Value
title	Do you agree with the government's proposal for the future of water and sewerage services?
image	[[File:Strathclyde Regional Council.svg	center	250px]]
caption	Strathclyde, Scotland
country	Scotland
flag_year	1994
date
no	1,194,667
yes	33,956
invalid	1,705
electorate	1,720,940

In 1994, the ruling Conservative Government of the United Kingdom brought forward plans to overhaul a number of aspects of local government in Scotland as part of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Part II of the Act reorganised Scotland's water supply and sewerage services, previously the responsibility of regional councils. Three water authorities were established: East of Scotland Water; West of Scotland Water; and North of Scotland Water. The main reason for this reorganisation was to prepare for the privatisation of water services, to bring Scotland into line with the rest of the UK. The water authorities in England and Wales had been privatised in 1989. However, public opinion was strongly against such a move, with successive polls showing 86–91% of people definitely opposed.

Referendum

In March 1994 Strathclyde Regional Council held a postal referendum of Strathclyde residents on whether control of water and sewerage services should be privatised. Seven out of ten voters returned papers, a total of 1.2 million people, of whom 97% voted against privatisation.

NO vote	YES vote
1,194,667	33,956

▲

Turnout	Total votes cast
70%	1,228,623

Aftermath

With mounting disagreement with plans the policy was dropped, and the three Scottish Water Authorities were kept in public hands. In 2002 all three were merged to create Scottish Water, a publicly owned water authority of the Scottish Government in the post-devolution era.

References

''[[The Scotsman]]'' 8 March 1993
(1994-03-22). "Strathclyde Water Referendum: 97% Say No". [[Local Government Chronicle]].
(1994-03-23). "Vote against water plan hits 97% level". [[The Herald (Glasgow).
"Future of Scotland's water and sewerage services". Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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