Southern Water asked to fund Motcombe Pool as company ‘owes Eastbourne a considerable debt’

Phil Hall wrote to Southern Water on yesterday (Tuesday, March 15).

He spoke about the sewage dumping situation which happened last month, and the closure of Motcombe Pool.

Full story about the sewage incident here.

He said in his letter, “As you also know, it is not just the tonnes of raw sewage you pumped into the sea over a 17 hour period on February 5 2022 that’s the problem but your terrible history of pumping raw sewage into seas and rivers that means in Eastbourne alone, Southern Water has let wastewater into the sea on 20 separate occasions over the last 12 months alone. By any objective measure I would suggest you owe the people of Eastbourne a considerable debt for this behaviour.”

On the subject of Motcombe Pool, for which Phil has spoken on before, he asked Southern Water to provide a grant for the pool.

He said, “Given you run a water company, Southern Water’s supposed commitment to swimming through your Learn to Swim programmes and a desperate need to rebuild a reputation that is in tatters locally (following your consistent dumping of raw sewage into the sea at Eastbourne) I thought that you might like to consider donating £800,000 to enable thousands of Eastbourne residents to swim in a safe, clean and welcoming environment at Motcombe Swimming Pool for decades to come.

“Although £800,000 may initially appear to be a significant sum, it is around 0.80 per cent of the £91.5 million of fines and court costs Southern Water paid last year for pumping over 20 billion litres of untreated sewage into delicate ecosystems across the south coast.

The Herald raised Phil’s letter with Southern Water.

A spokesperson for the company said, “The incident on February 5 was as unacceptable to us as is it was to our customers. A control panel fire left meant that we had to release screened waste through an outfall in the sea off the coast.

“Our people responded quickly and worked through the night in very difficult circumstances to reduce the impact, get the site running and make repairs.

“As Mr Hall recognises, Southern Water is a major contributor to local economies both as an employer and a major investor in environmental protection. Between 2020 and 2025 we are spending £2 billion on our waste water equipment and network.

“Our record is already improving with serious incidents down by 50 per cent since 2019. Our resilience has also increased for instance despite rolling power outages across the region during Storm Eunice there was not a single significant pollution incident. Since 2017 every penny of profit made by the company has gone into protecting the environment and improving customer service.

“While we hope the swimming pool at Motcombe can be brought back to use, we believe our customers across the region from North Kent to the Isle of Wight will be best served by Southern Water continuing to invest, continuing to improve and continuing to work in partnership with councils to ensure the high quality of bathing water around our coast.”

Check out our previous Motcombe Pool stories:

Eastbourne residents sick of the council’s ‘worthless’ assurances about the future of Motcombe Pool

Eastbourne pool will not be sold, council confirms

Investigations continue to decide future of Eastbourne swimming pool