Senior county councillor declines to support 'sewage tax'

Calls to impose a ‘sewage tax’ on water companies have failed to win the support of a senior East Sussex councillor ahead of an upcoming debate.
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The call comes as part of a motion put forward by Liberal Democrat councillors Kathryn Field and Caroline Lambert, which (among other things) asks East Sussex County Council to express its support for imposing a special tax on water companies for discharging untreated sewage into waterways.

While still set for a full debate, it is the council’s policy for motions to first be considered by the lead member whose portfolio the issues fall under. In this case, it was Cllr Claire Dowling, who considered the motion as part of her lead member for transport and environment meeting on Monday (June 13).

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Ahead of that meeting officers had recommended that Cllr Dowling propose an amended motion, altering much of what had been proposed by Cllrs Field and Lambert.

Sussex seafrontSussex seafront
Sussex seafront

While Cllrs Field and Lambert were not present at the lead member meeting, Cllr Dowling confirmed that the Liberal Democrat councillors had written to her accepting all but one of these proposed amendments.

The unagreed amendment would have removed reference to the ‘sewage tax’, as officers had argued it was unclear how exactly it would work. As a result, officers had instead suggested that the council call on regulators “to consider stronger penalties or mechanisms to reduce incidents of unauthorised discharges of sewage.”

This view was supported by Cllr Dowling.

While the motion itself did not lay out details of how this tax would work, a possible route was offered by Green Party councillor Georgia Taylor, who suggested it could work as a tax which could be discounted by investment in waterworks infrastructure.

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This, Cllr Taylor said, could incentivise further investment into preventative action by water companies.

The other parts of the motion, as agreed by Cllrs Field and Lambert, would see the council call on the Environment Agency to investigate and report on an incident involving Southern Water discharging raw sewage into the sea at Eastbourne in February. The original motion had called on Southern Water to carry out this investigation.

It would also see the council call on Southern Water to ‘take full responsibility’ for sewage discharges around the county and apologise to residents affected by such events.