East Sussex councillors support 'stronger penalties' for sewage discharge
Cllr Field said “In 2021, there were 6,971 incidents of Southern Water discharging raw sewage into the seas and rivers in the areas they operate in"
East Sussex councillors have called on regulators to ‘consider stronger penalties’, after turning down calls to back a ‘sewage tax’ on water companies.
On Tuesday (July 12), East Sussex County Council debated a motion calling for action to penalise water companies like Southern Water for releasing untreated sewage into waterways.
In its original form — put forward by Liberal Democrat councillors Kathryn Field and Caroline Lambert — the motion called on the authority to support the passing of a ‘sewage tax’ on water company profits.
However, references to this potential legislation were removed after an amended motion gained the support of Cllr Claire Dowling, the council’s lead member for transport and environment, at a meeting last month. This amended motion called on regulators to take action instead.
This change was not supported by Cllr Field, who said: “I won’t accept the amendment, because it does weaken the original motion. It doesn’t ask for a specific thing to stop this happening.
“I have heard arguments that we can’t ask for taxation because we don’t know how we would do it, it would be difficult. Well the government in any other tax regime has no difficulty whatsoever in instructing HMRC in collecting taxation.
“Telling the government how to do that isn’t our job. Asking the government to make sure it is done and that our waterways are cleared up is certainly a role for us.”
She added: “In 2021, there were 6,971 incidents of Southern Water discharging raw sewage into the seas and rivers in the areas they operate in. They were fined £90m, which acknowledges that this is the wrong thing to do.
“The fine though is a one-off. Taxation will be ongoing until the matter is solved completely.”
Due to the way the council debates its motions, Cllr Field’s original proposal was put forward as an amendment to the version supported by Cllr Dowling.
A further amendment was suggested by the council’s Labour group. This amendment called on the council to ask the government to ‘bring water companies such as Southern Water into public ownership’.
While these amendments gained support among the council’s opposition groups, they both saw criticism from the majority Conservative group who argued the solution was stronger action from the existing regulators.
Cllr Dowling said: “The power is very much with the regulator, which is why the amended motion calls for stronger penalties, stronger mechanisms. We are not the regulator, which is why the regulators have been invited to a meeting here.
“We recognise the fact those regulators can increase powers, they can increase the mechanisms and this is what this council is calling for.”
Following a further debate, Cllr Dowling’s version of the motion was passed on a majority vote.