Wealden councillors disappointed after Southern Water declines invitation to watchdog committee

Wealden District Council said the water company originally said representatives would be able to attend the meeting on Monday, January 22, at the council offices on Vicarage Lane, Hailsham

But the council said officials declined the invitation shortly before Christmas.

At the meeting, councillor Daniel Manvell (Uckfield North, Labour) said: “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.”

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The council’s statement about the meeting comes just after their announcement that Ofwat had agreed to better partnership working with local authorities, having been urged by the Southern Water Stakeholder Group to ‘hold Southern Water to account’. The council said it has a ‘catalogue of concerns’ across Wealden about flooding, sewage seeping into people’s homes and roads, and discharges into rivers and waterways.

Councillor Manvell invited committee members to forward questions for Southern Water to officers. He said: “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.”

Southern Water have been approached for comment.