Motion submitted by Councillor Babarinde:
“The Council notes:
· That the Southern Water was consistently in breach of the legal requirements with regard to the discharge of sewage.
· In the last two years water companies in England dumped raw sewage 775,568 times lasting 5,768,679 hours.
· Water company executives have paid themselves £51 million, including £30.6 million in bonuses, over the last two years.
· That the Environment Agency downgraded Eastbourne’s seawater quality from ‘Good’ to ‘Sufficient’ in 2022.
· That the Full Council passed a motion in 23 February 2022 which included a call for urgent action by Southern Water to prevent sewage discharges, and called on the Government to introduce a sewage tax on water companies to begin compensating for their discharges, and to help fund a cleaner sea.
This Council:
1. Reiterates its call for Southern Water to take robust action to prevent sewage discharges from occurring off the south coast.
2. Endorses the action taken by the Leader and the Chief Executive requesting an urgent meeting with the Chief Executive of Southern Water to hold the organisation to account for its raw sewage dumping along Eastbourne’s coastline.
3. Calls on the Government to ban bonuses for water company executives. “
Minutes:
Councillor Babarinde moved and Councillor Murray seconded the motion as set out in the agenda in relation to holding Southern Water to account for sewage discharges in the sea as below:
Motion submitted by Councillor Babarinde:
· That the Southern Water was consistently in breach of the legal requirements with regard to the discharge of sewage.
· In the last two years water companies in England dumped raw sewage 775,568 times lasting 5,768,679 hours.
· Water company executives have paid themselves £51 million, including £30.6 million in bonuses, over the last two years.
· That the Environment Agency downgraded Eastbourne’s seawater quality from ‘Good’ to ‘Sufficient’ in 2022.
· That the Full Council passed a motion in 23 February 2022 which included a call for urgent action by Southern Water to prevent sewage discharges, and called on the Government to introduce a sewage tax on water companies to begin compensating for their discharges, and to help fund a cleaner sea.
This Council:
1. Reiterates its call for Southern Water to take robust action to prevent sewage discharges from occurring off the south coast.
2. Endorses the action taken by the Leader and the Chief Executive requesting an urgent meeting with the Chief Executive of Southern Water to hold the organisation to account for its raw sewage dumping along Eastbourne’s coastline.
3. Calls on the Government to ban bonuses for water company executives. “
An amendment was moved by Councillor di Cara and seconded by Councillor Shore, to add recommendations 4 to 8 to the motion as follows:
“This Council:
4. Backs local sea swimmers and our MP’s campaign to redefine the bathing season to extend testing for quality assurance and public confidence.
5. Investigates a physical, beachfront water quality alert to complement the beachboy app to ensure no digital disadvantage to those not online.
6. Makes a submission to the Government’s consultation and positively endorses a proposal that water companies become statutory consultees for planning purposes.
7. Invites the project team from the local Blue Heart initiative to speak to members of the Council’s Scrutiny Committee to present their progress on managing rainwater runoff, so important to our sea bathing water quality outcomes.”
8. Uses Council planning powers to mandate water run off measures on new builds wherever feasible, to reduce pressure on combined sewers and cut discharges.”
In speaking to the motion, Councillor Babarinde with the consent of the Council, agreed to incorporate the amendment into his motion.
The Council debated the motion as amended.
The motion as amended was put to a vote and carried.
RESOLVED (unanimously) that:
“The Council notes:
· That the Southern Water was consistently in breach of the legal requirements with regard to the discharge of sewage.
· In the last two years water companies in England dumped raw sewage 775,568 times lasting 5,768,679 hours.
· Water company executives have paid themselves £51 million, including £30.6 million in bonuses, over the last two years.
· That the Environment Agency downgraded Eastbourne’s seawater quality from ‘Good’ to ‘Sufficient’ in 2022.
· That the Full Council passed a motion in 23 February 2022 which included a call for urgent action by Southern Water to prevent sewage discharges, and called on the Government to introduce a sewage tax on water companies to begin compensating for their discharges, and to help fund a cleaner sea.
This Council:
1) Reiterates its call for Southern Water to take robust action to prevent sewage discharges from occurring off the south coast.
2) Endorses the action taken by the Leader and the Chief Executive requesting an urgent meeting with the Chief Executive of Southern Water to hold the organisation to account for its raw sewage dumping along Eastbourne’s coastline.
3) Calls on the Government to ban bonuses for water company executives.
4) Backs local sea swimmers and our MP’s campaign to redefine the bathing season to extend testing for quality assurance and public confidence.
5) Investigates a physical, beachfront water quality alert to complement the beachboy app to ensure no digital disadvantage to those not online.
6) Makes a submission to the Government’s consultation and positively endorses a proposal that water companies become statutory consultees for planning purposes.
7) Invites the project team from the local Blue Heart initiative to speak to members of the Council’s Scrutiny Committee to present their progress on managing rainwater runoff, so important to our sea bathing water quality outcomes.
8) Uses Council planning powers to mandate water run off measures on new builds, wherever feasible, to reduce pressure on combined sewers and cut discharges.