Councillors express disappointment after Southern Water declines invitation to watchdog committee

Members of Wealden District Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee have expressed their disappointment after Southern Water officials withdrew their agreement to attend the meeting.

The water company, which is responsible for wastewater and sewerage treatment across the Wealden district, had originally said its representatives would be able to attend the meeting at the council offices.

But shortly before Christmas, officials declined the information and the acting chair of the watchdog committee Councillor Daniel Manvell said he was very disappointed.

The invitation to Southern Water to attend the committee meeting came after a catalogue of concerns across Wealden including flooding, sewage seeping into people’s homes, gardens and roads, the ongoing problem of discharges into rivers and waterways and the inability to deal with additional development.

Wealden council and other local authorities have pledged to keep the pressure up on Southern Water and to hold it to account for constant failings.

At the meeting on Monday, Councillor Manvell, a Labour Party councillor representing Uckfield North, said, “We must start our first meeting of the New Year with some bad news. Southern Water had previously accepted an invitation to appear before this committee today, following our very successful meeting with the CEO of South East Water in September.

“Unfortunately Southern Water informed us just before Christmas that their representatives were now declining our invitation to attend today's meeting. They claim instead to be in favour of one-to-one meetings with councils, as well as 'wider stakeholder work'.

“Southern Water has not explained why our meeting today is not considered a one to one meeting or wider stakeholder work. This reasoning clearly does not hold water - it is merely an attempt to avoid public scrutiny.

“This is yet another failure from Southern Water. They are polluting our rivers and seas and now they are refusing to be held to account. The motion we passed at November's Full Council to clean up our waterways has clearly shown the water companies that we are not tolerating failure any longer. We will not let Southern Water off the hook.”

Councillor Manvell invited members of the committee to forward any questions they would have asked Southern Water to officers and said the committee would ensure it would get answers.