East Devon Reporter eastdevonnews.co.uk 

Cranbrook is to get a new ‘garden village’ of more than 1,000 homes, primary school, sports pitches, traveller pitches, play areas, employment land and allotments, it has been announced.

East Devon District Council (EDDC) has rubber stamped plans to expand Cranbrook – the second of four proposals to increase the town.

Image shows the Treasbeare planning permission map, agreed for Cranbrook. EDDC.

The granted planning permission includes:

• Up to 1, 035 homes,
• Five permanent pitches for gypsies and travellers,
• 25 acres of employment land
• 85 acres of recreational space
• Primary school
• Six sports pitches
• Sports pavilion

Will Heath, Carden Group CEO, said: “We are delighted to have received planning permission for Treasbeare Garden Village; an exciting new community that will provide over 1,000 high quality new homes and a long list of new facilities including the early provision of a primary school, six sports pitches and sports pavilion, 85 acres of recreational space, a neighbourhood centre and 25 acres of employment land. These facilities will also benefit the existing Cranbrook community.”

He added: “I would like to thank East Devon District Council planning department for their support and proactive approach when determining such a complex planning application.

“We are now looking forward to working with like-minded delivery partners to bring forward high quality new homes, community facilities and employment uses.”

EDDC said  the granted planning permission was for the second of four expansion areas at Cranbrook.

It said the expansion at Treasbeare closely follows the permission issued in April for the Cobdens area, which together ‘will bring forward more than half of the town’s planned growth’.

The planning permission means the development of up to 1,035 homes, five permanent pitches for gypsies and travellers, up to 10 hectares (25 acres) of employment land, a primary school and a sports hub with full-sized artificial grass and turf pitches.

Other community facilities will include a neighbourhood centre, play areas, allotments and large areas of green space, EDDC said.

An EDDC spokesman said: “This second sports hub, together with the existing facility at Ingrams, will serve the whole town of Cranbrook, in this case providing important facilities for a range of sports including rugby, football and tennis.

“To complete Cranbrook’s expansion, additional planning permissions will be required and these are expected to see further homes, sports provision and a community centre together with more play areas, allotments, areas of open space and neighbourhood centres.”

Andy Wood, EDDC interim director of place, said: “Issuing this planning permission is the result of months of work by council officers negotiating with the developers to secure the best form of development for our thriving new community at Cranbrook.

“It will provide much-needed homes and employment opportunities, as well as community facilities for Cranbrook residents.”

He added: “We continue to work with the developers and the community to deliver high quality and sustainable development at Cranbrook.”

Martin Shaw

I am sad to see that Dr Sarah Wollaston, the Chair of Devon NHS who I met several times during our campaign for Seaton Hospital, has felt compelled to resign, saying she felt unable “to sign off on a further cut” with the “elastic already stretched too far”.

Sarah seemed genuinely concerned at the threat to Seaton Hospital, although she had signed off on the proposal and many other cuts. She seemed to be the person pushing the NHS to help us come up with a plan to mitigate the effects – which we are still doing, although progress is on hold because of the election.

That Sarah felt compelled to go is a stark comment on the state of Devon’s NHS after 14 years of Conservative rule. Tory underfunding has produced the threats to Seaton and the other community hospitals over the last ten years, the Tory decision to hand them to a property company made them vulnerable in the first place, and Tory MPs and councillors have sabotaged them.

No one who cares about the NHS or our community hospitals should vote Conservative – in Honiton & Sidmouth and in Exmouth & East Exeter, vote Liberal Democrat; in Exeter and in Plymouth vote Labour. Let’s make July 4th Devon’s day of independence from Tory domination.

Bill payers are suing six of the UK’s biggest water companies for £1.5bn over sewage discharges in one of the biggest legal battles of its kind, i can reveal.

Kyriakos Petrakos inews.co.uk

The companies have been accused of underreporting the number of raw sewage discharges they have made into canals and rivers, allowing them to charge customers more than they would had they reported an accurate number.

Bosses at the firms have refuted the claims and vowed to defend themselves in the legal challenge “robustly”.

Environmental consultant Carolyn Roberts is leading the case as the proposed representative for 35 million water customers that may be paid damages if she succeeds.

She told i that she wants to see bill payers compensated and hopes that the vast damages water companies may have to pay will “persuade them to change their behaviour”.

Leigh Day Solicitors, the legal firm overseeing the six claims, said that between them the companies may have to pay anywhere between £878m and £1.5bn in damages.

Environment Agency data released this year showed that more sewage was dumped into England’s waterways in 2023 than in any other year on record.

This has prompted an angry reaction from the public as water customers throughout the country shared stories of their gardens flooding with sewage, falling ill after swimming in rivers and having their streets flooded with E.coli infested water and used sanitary products.

The six water companies that have had claims issued against them as part of the legal case are Thames Water, Severn Trent Water, Northumbrian Water, United Utilities, Anglian Water and Yorkshire Water.

Environment agency data shows that these six firms dumped sewage over 330,000 times for 2.4 million hours last year, with the largest number of spills recorded along the River Severn.

Anglers at one of the Severn’s top fishing spots in Shrewsbury told i in 2023 that they “don’t want to come to Shrewsbury any more” because they are fed up of catching “more tampons than fish“.

The case against the six companies stems from data collected by Professor Peter Hammond, a mathematician who records illegal spills using sewage discharge monitoring data and Environment Information Requests covering hundreds of sewage treatment works across the country.

According to Mr Hammond, his findings revealed that water companies across the country “were underreporting their spills of untreated sewage”.

Mr Hammond added that the companies hadn’t “performed up to standard” but concealed this to avoid paying customers compensation.

Severn Trent refuted the claim brought against it, while Thames Water said it is aware of the claim against it but will “defend the claim robustly”. The other water companies are yet to respond.

Ms Roberts said that the central aim of the legal action was to see the amount of additional charges unfairly imposed on customers returned to them as compensation.

Water companies must report sewage discharges to Ofwat, the regulator. Ofwat takes these spills into account when deciding the prices companies are able to charge – with prices lowered if targets are not met.

In September last year, Ofwat ordered several water companies to pay back £114m to customers through lower bills after “falling short” on performance measures around leakages, supply and reducing pollution.

The legal challenge brought by Ms Roberts claims that water companies are underreporting discharged to avoid being found to have missed Ofwat’s target level.

“We are going after the six that we think will generate the largest returns, given their permit exceedances and the populations they serve,” she said. “The intention is that the amount that the companies have to pay back to their customers will persuade them to change their behaviour.”’

Ms Roberts has assisted in dozens of police investigations in which human corpses have been discovered in rivers, canals and other waterways, providing her with experience of the courts system.

She said: “I have experience of giving evidence in court and generating a case. I have done over 30 cases.”

Thames Water is the latest company to have a claim issued against it, which will be heard jointly with the claims made against the five other water companies at the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

The claim form issued against Thames Water says that it may need to pay £159.1m in compensation to nearly 11.5m customers if the case against it succeeds.

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “Thames Water is aware of the claims brought against it and other water and sewerage companies by Professor Roberts.

“Thames Water will defend the claim robustly.”

A Severn Trent spokesperson said: “This is a highly speculative claim with no merit which we strongly refute. Should pollutions ever occur, they are always reported to the Environment Agency. Any claim to the contrary is wholly and completely wrong.

“Our regulators, the Environment Agency and Ofwat, set strict targets and performance measures that deliver for our customers and the environment. Severn Trent is recognised as a sector leader by both regulators across operational and environmental measures. We consistently deliver for our customers, and are the only water company to have received the highest 4* status for environmental performance from the Environment Agency for four years running and are on track for a fifth year.”

While water companies are allowed to discharge untreated or partly treated sewage into waterways, they are only allowed to do so during exceptional periods of heavy rain.

Mr Hammond said: “There are regulations and permits governing what water companies are allowed to do,” but claimed, “there were many instances where they were breaching permits, which the Environment Agency considers illegal.

“They were underreporting their spills of untreated sewage. That influences their financial negotiations with Ofwat when they determine price increases or refunds for customers depending on whether they have or haven’t performed up to standard.”

According to Leigh Day Solicitors, this is what each company may have to pay in compensation to its customers if the case against it succeeds:

• Thames Water: up to £159.1m may be paid to 11.46m customers
• Anglian Water: up to £69.5m may be paid to 4.8m customers
• Northumbrian Water: up to £225.1m may be paid to 2.06m customers
• Yorkshire Water: up to £390.9m may be paid to 3.85m customers
• United Utilities: up to £378m may be paid to 5.6m customers
• Severn Trent: up to £322.5m may be paid to 8.1m customers

Katy Colley, 48, of Hastings, East Sussex, teamed up with Julie Wassmer, of Whitstable, Essex, to launch the website boycottwaterbills.com, which she claims has united thousands of people boycotting payments from all 11 water companies in England and Wales in protest of their inadequate wastewater services.

Speaking to i about the amount of compensation the six water companies may have to pay, Ms Colley said: “It’s a staggering amount and I am in no doubt that the water companies owe it to the public.

“At the same time, this collective action could take years. It is a slow process and it only involves around half of the water companies providing wastewater services.

“This is an urgent matter,” Ms Colley added. “We want to empower everyone to feel like they can do something about this now.”

Ms Colley told i that her own boycott campaign is “gaining momentum literally by the hour” and she encouraged water customers to “take a stand to cancel their direct debits as this is completely legal and risk-free”.

This legal challenge comes as i is urging political parties to get behind its manifesto to Save Britain’s Rivers amid growing public anger over the amount sewage dumped into waterways across the nation.

The manifesto sets out five key pledges that include improving the health of rivers and reducing sewage spills.

Its aim is to force political action and stop UK rivers being used as open sewers, returning them to people and nature.

The Liberal Democrats and Green Party have both pledged to support i‘s blueprint to rescue rivers.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said “enough is enough,” vowing that the party “will have the most ambitious manifesto of any political party on cleaning up our rivers and coastlines”.

Ofwat, the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water declined to comment on the proceedings.

Northumbrian Water, United Utilities and Anglian Water were also contacted by i for a comment.

Severn Trent has awarded its chief executive £3.2m, despite the company’s sewage spills rising by a third in 2023.

Euan O’Byrne Mulligan inews.co.uk (Extract)

Liv Garfield saw her pay package increase by 2 per cent, according to the FTSE 100-listed company’s annual report released on Tuesday.

She received a salary of £794,000, with her bonus increasing from £359,000 in 2022 to £584,000. The remainder of her package included pension payments and long-term share awards.

It comes despite Severn Trent, which supplies 4.6 million households and businesses in England, being responsible for more than 60,000 sewage spills last year – a rise of a third on 2022.

In February, the utility was also fined £2m by the Environment Agency for allowing more than 260 million litres of sewage – the equivalent of 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools – to be discharged into the River Trent between November 2019 and February 2020.

Ms Garfield’s latest pay rise confirms her position as the highest-paid boss in the water industry, having received more than £16m in the past five years.

Severn Trent said the increase was justified by the company’s strong financial performance, as revenues rose 8pc last year to £2.34bn, with profits jumping 20pc to £201m.

The company has proposed increasing bills by 36 per cent to £546 a year per household excluding inflation by 2030.

A spokesman for the company said: “Delivering for our customers, our communities and the environment underpins our approach to remuneration. Just under three quarters of executive pay is directly linked to performance, with stretching targets in place.”

Accounts published on Monday revealed that the boss of South West Water also received a pay increase of £300,000, just weeks after a parasite outbreak in Devon left residents unable to drink their water supply.

Last week, i launched its manifesto to save Britain’s waterways, which includes a call for regulators to be granted additional powers to restrict dividends and bonuses for underperforming companies.

All political parties have been invited to support the campaign. The Liberal Democrats became the first to do so on Thursday, followed by the Green Party of England and Wales on Monday.

The Conservatives and Labour have previously discussed restricting water company bonuses in cases of severe sewage pollution but the parties are yet to back i’s manifesto.

Martin Shaw

I was a Labour member for a long time – and even a general election candidate back in 1987 – but I have never voted blindly for the party. In 2010, when I lived in Brighton, I helped elect Britain’s first Green MP, the great Caroline Lucas. I have been part of East Devon’s Independent movement, being Seaton and Colyton’s only non-Conservative county councillor in recent years, and supported Claire Wright in her bids for Parliament. But now I am backing the Liberal Democrats.

This is partly a tactical decision – it is essential to defeat the Tories, and the Lib Dems are best placed to win in both the Honiton & Sidmouth and Exmouth & Exeter East constituencies. It helps hugely that Richard Foord and Paul Arnott are both excellent candidates – doughty, dedicated and experienced campaigners and genuinely decent human beings to boot (now you can’t say that about all of the candidates on the anti-Tory side).

But there are also political reasons. Labour is tacking to the right, not prepared even to end the terrible two-child child benefit rule, and showing its authoritarian face in brutally removing some excellent candidates. The Lib Dems actually have some better policies, for example on social care, Europe and Palestine.

Perhaps most important, electing a large number of Lib Dems in this election could make them the official opposition in place of the Conservatives. We would then have a constructive opposition, helping push the Labour government to better places on some issues, and consigning the far-right Tory party to history. And East Devon could be part of this, not part of a discredited and irrelevant Conservative rump. What’s not to like?