to consider the following motion received in accordance with Council Procedure Rules:
(a) From Cllrs McKay and Bonham
“South West Water has not delivered the service that could be reasonably expected of it for many years. It was formed in 1989 some 35 years ago. Since that time it has paid out £4.5 billion in dividends and now has debts of £3.1 billion.
It has paid out £127 million in 2024 alone.
This is a company that:
1. is rated by the Environment Agency’s Environmental Performance Assessment metric as being the worst in England;
2. in May this year was fined a record £2.1 million as a result of charges brought by the Environment Agency. It was shown to be responsible for many hundreds of illegal discharges at seven sites across Cornwall and one in Plymouth over a six-year period;
3. was responsible for at least 58,249 sewage overflows in 2023. On average 159.6 times a day. These lasted for 530,736 hours (That's 61.43 years!) - in 1,117 different locations across its service area;
4. leaks over 20% of water delivered;
5. has recently allowed its water supply to be polluted and cause a serious outbreak of cryptosporidium infections; and
6. has not invested in the necessary infrastructure, yet puts forward schemes like the desalination plant in Cornwall, that would not be necessary if just 2% of leaks were fixed.
This litany of failure has also to be considered in the context of climate change and it is clear that South West Water has put us all in a very difficult position. It is one that cannot be allowed to continue.
By any measure South West Water is a poorly run company that has failed to balance the need to attract investment with providing a satisfactory service to its customers. It is this that has led OFWAT to have to approve a price rise.
Given such an appalling track record of poor performance, the CEO (Susan Davy) turned down a £237,000 bonus and diverted a further £298,000 pay bonus to the Watershare+ customer scheme. While this is laudable and needs to be recognised, it is hardly sufficient and the question remains why she and her board are still in post.
This Council therefore resolves to:
1. Call on the government to recognise the guiding principle in all policy that clean water is a right and not a commodity;
2. Call on the government to ban all bonuses and company dividend payments until such time as the Environment Agency’s Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) metric is ‘good’ (4 stars);
3. Call on the government to limit the time to no more than five years to reach an EPA of 4 stars after which it would take the company into ‘special measures’ with a view to the possible creation of a public benefit company or re-nationalisation;
4. Call on South West Water to provide a detailed plan and timetable on how it intends to achieve an EPA of 4 stars and to undertake to consult with and seek the approval of all the local authorities in its service area;
5. Call on South West Water to provide a detailed plan on how it intends to reduce leaks by at least 50% in the next 5 years;
6. Call on South West Water to provide a full explanation of why it initially failed to detect the presence of cryptosporidium in the Brixham water supply, either directly or through regular monitoring for e-coli as a proxy for its possible presence;
7. Call on the government to strengthen the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate so that they are better able to monitor and provide oversight of the water services sector;
8. Request the CEO of South West Water to attend a session of this Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee to answer questions;
9. Call on the board of South West Water to give serious consideration to their position if the requests of this Council are unacceptable; and
10. Call on the CEO of SWW to attend a water summit of local MPs, Councillors and Community Groups to explain the cause of recent failures, provide plans for remediation and answer questions, to be held by 30 September 2024.”