Preface: Scrutiny committees at district and county perform the same function at local level that parliamentary select committees perform at national level. They should be regarded in the same way. Those with experience of watching parliamentary committees will know that were SWW to face scrutiny at a parliamentary committee with so little preparation, they would be toast.

Recommendations

The final section of the scrutiny meeting with South West Water (SWW) involved committee members agreeing to a set of recommendations for further action.

Final wording will be agreed out of committee but here is the gist:

There should be more frequent communications and liaison between EDDC and SWW. In particular there needs to be a meeting between SWW and EDDC environmental health, and between SWW and representatives of both EDDC planning and strategic planning committees. (The mechanics of how to do this accountability, without involving an impracticable number of people, have yet to be agreed). As SWW is an outside body a Task and Finish Forum (TAFF) was thought to be inappropriate.

What was emphasised by councillors, was that SWW should be asked to bring to meetings technical staff who can answer questions. Councillors were clearly frustrated by frequent answers along the lines “We’ll get back to you on that”.

[For example Cllr. Kevin Blakey (at 20:21 on the second session), asked, given that the originally planned sewage treatment for Cranbrook had not been built and that SWW was claiming that the sewage system was not over capacity, how near was it to capacity, what were the figures? He got no answer to what seems a fundamental fact underpinning SWW’s claims.] 

Lastly, the Leader should be asked to write to central government on sewage issues affecting East Devon. 

Outspoken comments from councillors

During this session there were a number of outspoken comments made by councillors. Owl has chosen three to represent the flavour of the meeting, recorded over three You Tube videos.

From Cllr Maddy Chapman who said that she had never known Exmouth residents so angry.

From Cllr Todd Olive (assistant to Cllr Jung, Portfolio Holder Coast, Country and Environment} who summarised the detailed “no confidence” comments he made in session two.

(These are paraphrased by Owl, from 25:41 of session two recording)

Cllr Olive started by saying trust is earned not given .

At the SWW Beachwise forum meeting in November 2023. A number of actions were agreed including: to hold meetings with EDDC environmental health, with planning.

Once again the same issues are being talked about tonight. This November meeting was followed up by EDDC on a number of occasions including by email no confirmation of these follow ups was ever received. 

Cllr Olive has spoken to members of the public, officers and councillors who all report the same experience with SWW over and over and over again. This evening, he said,  we have heard once again of these actions being pushed into the future with no assurance that these future meetings will ever happen. 

Cllr Olive therefore expressed  that he had no confidence in any promises being kept. Through the chair he asked why anyone should trust anything SWW say. 

In reply, SWW just seem to reiterate their line that these topics should be taken outside the meeting in a “wider context”.

Finally, Cllr Paul Arnott, in answer to a suggestion from Cllr Ian Barlow that a line be drawn under the past and a new start made with SWW, said (paraphrased by Owl from  27:23 of session three recording) that the council has been aware and fighting this problem for a decade.

We have effluent streaming down our roads and coming up through manhole covers, we have lories barrowing raw sewage around the biggest town in East Devon. 

As Cranbrook’ struggles to become a new town its “Jewel in the Crown” country park now has sewage bubbling up through it. 

We have had no answers tonight so we cannot take a pollyanna technocratic approach alone. We have to express what we are hearing as a body politic, representing the people. We cannot just draw a line over what has happened in the past.

Conclusion

Owl’s conclusion is that SWW give the distinct impression they don’t feel they have to answer to elected councillors.

So who do they answer to?

They are clearly in denial that there is a problem, and that this problem is growing.

Owl’s opinion is that as currently constituted, SWW can never make the strategic decisions an ever growing community needs. For example, they decided it was not cost effective to build a new sewage treatment plant for Cranbrook, when we all know that it was set to expand, ultimately to 20,00. In other words they chose a “cheap”, temporising fix.

Not only that, but Topsham controlled by Exeter City is also expanding massively and this sits between Cranbrook and the nearest obvious discharge point, the Exe.

Looks as if they have been well and truly “snookered” by this short-termism!

[To be read in conjunction with Owl’s previous post here.]