(Including an update on the Exmouth sewage crisis)

May I take this opportunity to wish all readers a happy new year, while also pointing out again that these columns are ‘a personal point of view.’

www.exmouthjournal.co.uk

They do not represent an “official line” from East Devon District Council. Instead, they are my take on mainly local, often regional, sometimes national, and very rarely international matters that affect the district.

As we enter an election year, there are obviously many difficulties presenting almost daily for Conservative candidates and I won’t restate the obvious here. Their greatest obstacle in local campaigning is how readers should take promises of action when after fourteen years in power these actions are only needed because of them! Two very recent examples, if I may.

First, although I steer clear of Twitter/X, I was passed a posting by Simon Jupp MP in which he blamed the “LibDem-led administration at EDDC” (I think he means me) for the council having to consider a new community to the east of Exeter. Although Mr Jupp has decided not to stand in his current constituency, which could be affected, he is clearly trying to leave a bit of ammo behind for his successor as Conservative candidate. I wouldn’t pick it up off the ground if I were him.

Put simply, the decision to continue exploring a new town location was supported by all 3 Conservative members at EDDC’s Strategic Planning Committee on 5th December 2023. The recording of this is on YouTube about 3 hours 7 minutes in. Unlike Mr Jupp, Councillors Brian Bailey, Ben Ingham and Helen Parr knew as well as everyone else that it is the chaos around the National Planning Policy Framework and some illogical “housing need” numbers which makes consideration of this necessary in the first place. The 3 Conservatives could do little else and could justifiably feel somewhat undermined by their own MP.

I am grateful for the second example to our superb portfolio holder, Geoff Jung, and some terrific campaigners in Exmouth for my spending New Year’s Day not pottering along a beach but immersed in the latest and worst chapter of South West Water’s sewage operations in Exmouth. Many Exmouthians will have seen nine huge tanker lorries carrying sewage out of the failing plant in Phear Park and driving it across town to the plant in the Maer Road car park. As a council, both directly concern us, having responsibilities and ownership obligation. At the time of writing this had been going on day and night for 72 hours, ruining people’s sleep and leading to more untreated sewage entering the sea.

Geoff and I asked our terrific officers to act, sending urgent emails to the relevant agencies asking for immediate clarification around the health and safety issues. Meanwhile, Mr Jupp has taken to Twitter/X saying he is “demanding” action from South West Water. His potential successor is getting involved too. Their problem is that this scenario comes wholly from their own party, its grotesque defunding of the Environment Agency – who should be on these incidents instantly and strongly – and their failure to deal with the cavalier way South West Water is set up corporately. Exmouth Phear Park and Maer Road Car Park, and whatever items of sewage can be found on the Maer after manhole covers pop under the pressure, are the product of fourteen years Tory chaos.

There is no wriggling out of this, and I am reminded by all the indignant Conservative social media protests of that ancient playground saying, “He who smelled it, dealt it”. I imagine many readers will feel the same.

A seafront venue in Exmouth is closed due to Storm Henk. An eyewitness said Ocean’s roof ‘is coming off’. Pictures from the scene show police and fire engines have blocked the Esplanade.

Another landmark in the saga of “Exmouth’s Albatross” which we all now own! – Owl

PS it also featured in National News: “The roof of a pedestrian bridge at the railway station in Okehampton, Devon, was blown off and part of an entertainment complex roof in Exmouth fell on to the seafront…”

Jamie Hawkins www.devonlive.com 

The witness told DevonLive: “The roof of the ocean is coming off down Exmouth seafront. Both entrances are blocked by emergency services.”

Ocean confirmed the building is closed ‘for the safety of our guests to closed the complex for the day.’ A post on their Facebook page read: “Due to the the unexpected turn in the weather as a result of Storm Henk, we’ve decided it’s best for the safety of our guests and team to close the complex for the day.

“We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, and will be in touch (if we haven’t already) if you have a booking for today. Stay safe and warm and we’ll keep you updated here on our reopening when the skies clear up!”

Police and the fire service have been contacted for more information.

Updates will appear in our blog below:

20:20Jamie Hawkins

Ocean to remain closed until lunchtime tomorrow

A spokesperson said: “Quick update. As of now, our doors will remain closed until lunchtime tomorrow. This is to allow for a thorough inspection in the morning, to ensure the structural integrity of the building prior to opening.

“Rest assured your safety, and that of our team, is always our first priority. We’ll be reaching out to those whose bookings are affected.”

Is a bus stop all Seaton gets out of levelling up? – Owl

A Devon council plans to remove flowerbeds from a seafront esplanade to build a new bus stop in their place.

Two existing bus stops are due to be replaced by one new one Image source, Devon County Council

BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

The existing bus stops on Seaton’s Marine Place and Seafront Gardens would be replaced by a single stop, Devon County Council said.

The new waiting area is proposed for the esplanade side of the roundabout.

The council said it “appreciated” losing the flowerbeds might be “disappointing” for residents and visitors.

But it added: “It is agreed that pedestrian safety must come first, and it is essential that these beds are removed for this work to go ahead

“The removal of the flowerbeds does though offer an opportunity for East Devon District Council to consider how to make the best use of the space to make the seafront a more attractive place to visit.”

If the proposal proceeds, funding would come from the Department for Transport, it said, with plans now on the council website.

Thames Water was the first to publish a comprehensive map, in January last year, prompting a series of negative headlines about days-long spills. Southern Water and South West Water have limited maps covering beaches but not rivers, known as Beachbuoy and WaterFit respectively.

The Exe, Otter, Sid and Axe all empty into the sea at Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton, Sidmouth and Axmouth. All the inland communities in East Devon discharge their treated waste and storm overflows into one or other of these rivers or their tributaries, The Exe carries more from Exeter and Mid Devon.

[For example, in 2022 (the data is only updated annually by the Rivers Trust) the combined two Honiton wastewater treatment plants plus the nearby village of Gittisham discharged untreated waste for a total of 3252 hours on 283 occasions into the small river Otter. The popular Lime kiln car park is at the mouth of the Otter and that part of the beach is a popular bathing spot.] – Owl

Adam Vaughan www.thetimes.co.uk 

Water companies have reneged on a promise to produce live maps of sewage spills by the end of last year, leading campaigners to warn they are putting public health at risk.

Just months after The Times’ Clean it Up campaign began, senior water industry sources said companies would beat a 2025 legal deadline for near real-time online maps of discharges. Instead, they said all firms would go faster and release them before the end of 2023.

However, no new maps were released after the promise was made. That means swimmers, paddleboarders and other water users are reliant on a “sewage alert” map created by the charity Surfers Against Sewage. 

Thames Water was the first to publish a comprehensive map, in January last year, prompting a series of negative headlines about days-long spills. Southern Water and South West Water have limited maps covering beaches but not rivers, known as Beachbuoy and WaterFit respectively.

On New Year’s Day, Thames Water’s map showed scores of spills in Oxfordshire, while Southern had spills from the Isle of Wight in the west to Folkestone in the east. Five of nine monitored beaches between Exmouth and Lyme Regis were spilling sewage in South West Water’s region.

It is understood the failure of other firms to meet their mapping promises is due to a reluctance to weather criticism. Companies are also keen not to incur the wrath of politicians, including Steve Barclay, the new environment secretary. Last month, he told them that sewage spills from storm overflows were “unacceptable” and a priority for him.

“Until absolute transparency through real-time sewage spill reporting is mandatory everywhere, the paying public’s health and goodwill continues to be at risk,” said James Wallace, chief executive of River Action, a charity that supports water campaign groups.

A spokesman for the industry group Water UK said companies were “on track” to produce maps by the 2025 legal deadline. He did not address why they had failed to meet their 2023 pledge, and there are still no concrete dates for when the maps will materialise in coming months.

Lawyers and managers at six water companies have refused to release data on sewage releases that could reveal evidence of illegal spills.

One town’s fight against sewage pollution

The Times has twice used environmental information regulations requests to ask for stop and start times of sewage spills, to cross reference with weather data and see whether companies are discharging on dry days. Companies are legally permitted to release sewage only during wet weather. Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, Severn Trent Water, South West Water, United Utilities and Yorkshire Water refused to conduct an internal review of their initial refusal to publish the data.

Most argue that a release could prejudice a long-running investigation into the problem by the Environment Agency and Ofwat, which is expected to report its findings later this year. Barry Matthews, deputy general counsel at South West Water’s owner, Pennon Group, suggested that “it is the regulators and not the press or the public” who should be able to see the data, which he said concerned “complex technical and regulatory matters”.

Yet the BBC was able to establish from similar data that Thames Water, Wessex Water and Southern Water had last year collectively spilled for 3,500 hours on days when it was not raining. The Times has complained to the data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, over the continued refusals of the other six firms.

The Liberal Democrats wrote to the commissioner’s office in December to look at whether companies were failing to be transparent enough. “I am asking you to launch an immediate investigation into these firms not complying with [regulations] and call upon those firms to release data they are withholding from public scrutiny. Enough is enough, these firms must be held accountable, and should no longer be able to hide behind fabricated excuses,” said the Lib Dem MP Tim Farron.

A water company has been accused of “wilfully polluting” while using tankers to move sewage to an overflowing pumping station in Devon.

[Effectively chucking it into the sea – Owl]

Brodie Owen www.bbc.co.uk

South West Water (SWW) said a sewer burst in Exmouth on 30 December, as well as flooding elsewhere, had forced it to use lorries to transport the waste to a nearby pumping station instead of a treatment works.

But campaigners said the pumping station was already under major pressure before waste was delivered to it.

SWW apologised for the disruption and said it was working as quickly as possible to repair the burst main.

The utility said it had been transporting waste to Maer Road pumping station, near Sandy Bay, as it had been prevented from taking it to a treatment works due to flooding.

The Environment Agency (EA) had been notified of the situation, SWW said.

But campaigners said it meant the company transported sewage to an area where sewage was already being discharged.

Geoff Crawford, from End Sewage Convoys and Pollution Exmouth, said it was “wilful pollution”.

“It’s definitely clear that they know that Maer Road is overflowing – their system WaterFit, external clearly shows that,” he said.

“Even though it’s overflowing, they are adding sewage to that overflow.”

He said the pumping station had overflowed “pretty much non-stop” since sewage tankers were used.

“There’s probably a few hundred tanker movements in the past few days, 24/7.

“They are really noisy, travelling past care homes, past schools and through residential areas.

“They are running their pumps and their engines throughout the night.

“There’s a lot of really fed-up, tired and angry residents.”

SWW said it was planning to take the waste to Maer Lane treatment works now that flooding had eased.

It said: “Our teams are working hard to repair a sewer which burst in the Exmouth area on 30 December.

“In order to complete this essential work, we have needed to use tankers to transport flows from the sewer to a local pumping station to allow the team to work on the damaged pipe.”

It said it was aiming to install an overland pipe by the end of Wednesday “to divert flows around the damaged section of sewer so we can complete a full repair without the need for tankers”

It added that it was “sorry for any inconvenience caused while we complete this work as quickly as possible”.

The EA has been contacted for comment.