Southern Water CEO apologies to Hastings residents for 'unacceptable performance'
Burst mains, that have often left thousands without water, were also discussed
The chief executive of Southern Water has apologised to Hastings residents for the company’s “unacceptable performance”.
The apology came at a public meeting hosted by Hastings Borough Council on Tuesday (July 23), which saw residents and councillors question the water company’s lead executives on a range of issues.
Opening the meeting, Hastings mayor Judy Rogers told attendees that more than 150 questions had been submitted by residents ahead of the meeting, which she said “fell roughly into three clear areas”. These were: fresh water and water outages; flooding; and sewage discharges.
The meeting began with a presentation by representatives of Southern Water, which covered the range of incidents which have hit the town in recent years and what was being done to address the problems.
During the presentation, Southern Water CEO Lawrence Gosden apologised for the company’s “unacceptable performance” during this period.
Mr Gosden said: “I just want to be very, very clear at the outset that we are here to answer all of your questions in full and we are extraordinarily sorry for the unacceptable performance from the company you have received in Hastings.”
He added: “The performance of the company has not been good enough and you need to know we feel that. The people in the company feel that; the scientists and the engineers who can do something about it and it is our job to do that.”
Mr Gosden highlighted the major water outage which hit the town’s residents in May, which he described as being “by far and away the most significant outage that the company has ever had to work with a community on.”
The apology fell flat with some, however, with many of those present calling on the company to do more to protect its customers.
Former council leader Paul Barnett (Hastings Independent) was among those to voice criticism. He described the company’s presentation as a “PR exercise”, saying it did not “allay any of the fears that either councillors or residents have about your ability as a company to actually put Hastings back where it needs to be.”
Labour group leader Margi O’Callahan voiced similar scepticism. She said: “Thanks for the apology … but I didn’t feel like it was that heartfelt given the fact that your five-year business plan is going to put our bills up for our residents by 73 per cent.
“I read recently that you got a bonus of £183,000. That is not acceptable. Why should they suffer? Why should they pay? How can you justify that?”
In response to Cllr O’Callahan, Mr Gosden said: “I understand this is an extraordinarily difficult subject for everybody. The very latest news is the draft determination is expected to put bills up by 44 per cent and that is still a very significant number.
“The problem that the industry really has … is that over the last 10 years water bills in real terms have been declining. There has been lack of infrastructure investment in water and … Southern Water’s water bill now is the same as it was, irrespective of inflation, 10 to 15 years ago.
“We need to start tackling building water infrastructure that is going to be resilient to climate change … and we also need to fundamentally revolutionise how sewage infrastructure works to start to stop sewage overflows.”
He added: “We need to be able to access money to do that.”
Southern Water’s presentation touched on other infrastructure improvements being considered or carried out by the company, although some present criticised the lack of details made available.
The representatives said these improvements included an ÂŁ8m refurbishment of the main line conveying sewage through Bulverhythe from the Cinque Ports Pumping Station. They said this refurbishment is due for completion later this year.
The pipe in question runs through West St Leonards, an area represented by Conservative councillor Matthew Beaver (Con). During the meeting, Cllr Beaver criticised the company’s failures to quickly respond to previous incidents with the line.
He said: “Should this ever happen again, because it will at some point, could we know that you have a plan in place that would actually allow the residents to come out of their doors — or float out of their doors in many cases — and actually see Southern Water staff there, ready to answer questions.”
The representatives also discussed other potential investments, saying the company was looking at connecting a second water supply works into the system which feeds Hastings. This would provide more resilience in the event of a burst like the one which caused the water outage in May, they said.
There was also discussion of discharging sewage into waterways and the overflowing of the company’s network.
Company representatives said the best solution to these issues was to take surface water runoff out of the sewerage system. Part of this work would involve the use of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and rain butts, the representatives said.
Valerie Murray, representing the campaign group Save Old Roar Gill, questioned whether this would be an effective solution, asking why the company was not putting in extra pipework to give the system a greater capacity.
In response, Mr Gosden said: “If we don’t deal with surface water sustainably and if we just build big concrete tanks and pipes from those concrete tanks to our treatment works that is going to significantly increase the carbon footprint of all of that processing to treat that flow.
“On a problem which is fundamentally inspired by climate change, with these volatile rain patterns we are now starting to really see, we don’t believe that is the right thing to do for a long term solution, because in 10 years time we would have to build bigger tanks and in another 10 years we would have to build even bigger bigger tanks.”
There were also several questions about what compensation the company would be providing to residents who were affected by the water outage in May.
Among those to raise this point was Cllr Glenn Haffenden (Green), who said: “What was promised by Southern Water then … is that you were going to compensate those residents who are the hardest off in Hastings, who really struggle not only to pay their water bills anyway but then had outages with no water … it is actually disgraceful.
“I don’t think anyone here really cares whether the shareholders are getting dividends. What we all want to hear is our residents are compensated like you promised, like you said you should and like they should be done.”
In response, the company’s chief customer officer Katy Taylor, said: “What we said we would do at the end of that incident was to compensate any businesses that were impaired during the event. We have paid out about £360,000 to those businesses already and we have had lots of individual dialogue with them where they perhaps have had insurance they haven’t been able to claim on. So we have absolutely done that.
“In terms of consumers and residents, they don’t automatically qualify for compensation under the regulations, due to the fact it is a strategic main. But we felt that wasn’t right, which is why we have chosen to do the community grant, because we feel that is a more significant way of supporting and helping those people.”
The £380,000 mentioned by Ms Taylor comes as part of Southern Water’s previously-announced £1m goodwill fund​, the rest of which is made up of a £120,000 contribution for local festivals and events and £500,000 for community projects, which will be allocated with the support of local partners.
There was further talk of compensation when discussion turned to the flooding of the town centre on two occasions last year. Representatives were challenged on whether they should have done more to compensate the families hit by the floods.
In response to these challenges, Ms Taylor insisted that the company worked with those hit by flooding, sending crews to clear and clean properties flooded by sewage, as well helping to secure compensation and alternative housing.
Representatives went on to say the system behind the town centre flooding had been restored to how it was “when first built”. They also said they had brought in other bodies to examine this infrastructure.