There has been uproar in the Brixham community, following the announcement of a meeting by South West Water to discuss water quality. It comes after the town was hit by an outbreak of the cryptosporidium parasite in May, with at least 100 confirmed cases of the vomiting and diarrhoea bug.

But terms and conditions apply, including pre-registration! – Owl

Uproar over South West Water meeting in parasite-hit town

Mary Stenson www.devonlive.com 

When people first began reporting feeling unwell, the water company said it was carrying out tests that had come back clear and initially told customers it was safe to continue using their water as normal. Just days later, they confirmed that they had found traces of the parasite and placed large parts of the town under a boil water notice.

South West Water said cryptosporidium had entered its water supply due to a damaged air valve on private land. The boil water was gradually lifted as the network was cleaned and extra protection, including microfilters and UV were put in place.

The notice was lifted for all properties on July 8 and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said there had been no confirmed cases since then but it was reported last month that residents were still fearful of drinking their tap water.

The water company has invited residents to a meeting with a South West Water panel and South Devon MP Caroline Voaden on September 12 at Scala Hall in the town centre, which it says will answer questions about drinking water quality.

But there has been anger in the community after the meeting was announced, according to Tanya Matthews, who had symptoms during the outbreak and was among the last households to have the boil water notice lifted.

Residents have been asked to submit questions for the panel in advance, prompting concerns that not all questions will be answered. Tanya has also raised concerns about the limited capacity of Scala Hall and its distance from affected residents in Hillhead and Kingswear. She says there has also been a lack of clarity about who will be on the panel and whether it will include Susan Davy, the chief executive officer of parent company Pennon Group.

She said: “It sounds like they are going to sit and talk at us, answering the questions they choose to while we all have to remain silent?

“Then it sounds like it will be the same as the meeting they had right at the start. That is not what we want.

“We also did not want it in town as that has always been an issue. Also, by having it in town, they have excluded Hillhead and Kingswear yet again. The Scala Hall is nowhere near where the residents that were affected live. A very dirty tactic on South West Water’s part.”

DevonLive has asked South West Water about the concerns that have been raised. It now says that they will take questions on the night but has not confirmed which of its representatives will attend the meeting.

The questions we asked and the company’s answers are as follows:

Will residents have the opportunity to ask questions on the night?

“Yes. The pre-submitted questions will be prioritised, but the panel will take questions from the floor as much as time allows. We want to answer as many questions as we can”

Will South West Water be answering all pre-submitted questions?

“We have found through attending similar events with stakeholders that pre-submitted questions help to get through more questions and give equal opportunities to people for their questions to be answered. We will answer as many questions as we can.”

Why is it being held at Scala Hall?

“We explored a range of venues across Brixham and Kingswear. This venue was identified as most suitable, considering a range of factors including accessibility and availability.”

What is the venue capacity?

“The capacity of this event will be guided by health and safety. Those that have expressed an interest in the event via our website will receive an email confirmation nearer the time.”

Will chief executive Susan Davy be in attendance? If not, why not?

“The event will be hosted by an independent chair and the panel will include the local Member of Parliament, Caroline Voaden, as well as senior representatives from South West Water. The SWW representatives have yet to be confirmed.”

The meeting will be held on Thursday, September 12 at Scala Hall, with doors opening from 6pm. Spaces have to be booked online and more information can be found here.

“None of the four “initial steps” announced by the environment secretary, Steve Reed, last month are likely to cause sleepless nights in any boardroom.”

Susan Davy off the hook? – Owl

Nils Pratley www.theguardian.com

The organisers of the March for Clean Water – that’s Feargal Sharkey and River Action, supported by organisations that range from Surfers Against Sewage to the RSPB to the Women’s Institute – make an excellent point: while it’s nice that the government will bring a water bill to parliament, the initiatives revealed so far “are not nearly extensive enough to address the scale of the UK’s water pollution crisis”.

You bet. None of the four “initial steps” announced by the environment secretary, Steve Reed, last month are likely to cause sleepless nights in any boardroom. The first, to ensure companies’ funding for infrastructure investment is ringfenced, read like a description of how the regulatory system in England and Wales was always supposed to work. One fears that the second, to add the protection of customers and the environment to companies’ articles of association, will be cosmetic; directors can always be fuzzy about how they interpret their fiduciary duties.

The third would create “powerful new customer panels” to “hold water bosses to account”. Really? Surely such panels’ powers can only ever be minor compared with regulators’. The fourth would double compensation for customers when basic water services are affected but is “subject to consultation” and seems aimed primarily at rare cases in which water doesn’t flow from the taps, as opposed to being targeted at pollution.

In Reed’s defence, he said his first steps were exactly that, and his “special measures” regime will contain more. The yet-to-emerge detail on chunkier stuff, including personal criminal liability for water bosses and new powers for Ofwat to block the payment of bonuses, may carry more weight.

Behind it all, though, sits the basic imperative to ensure environmental laws are enforced, not just on sewage discharges but also on agricultural runoff. That is rightly one of the campaigners’ core demands. It comes down to the government’s appetite – or not – to back regulatory reform and fund an effective enforcement regime.

Ofwat, as the economic regulator that took a decade-plus to wake up to the size of the companies’ dividend-extraction after the leveraged buyout boom of 2004-08, naturally tends to cop most of the heat for the industry’s failures. But the Environment Agency (EA), the body overseen by Reed’s department, deserves more attention.

The agency’s long decline was reported on in depth by this newspaper in June, and a few lowlights are worth recalling. Funding for environmental protection was cut by 80% between 2010 and 2021. Just 91 people out of a workforce of 13,400 were qualified to inspect sewage treatment plants, the EA’s new-ish chief executive, Philip Duffy, told parliament in April this year. “There was a withdrawal successively in 2009 and again in 2015 from regular investigations into compliance,” he said.

The last government gave the agency funding to recruit 500 new staff, and Duffy these days is in must-do-better mode (an improvement on his predecessor’s claim, as late as 2019, that the country’s water quality was “better than at any time since the Industrial Revolution”). There is a vague sense of a corner having been turned. The investigation into sewage treatment works by the EA and Ofwat, which last month led to the latter hitting three firms with provisional fines totalling £168m, was the largest ever.

Yet the EA still looks miles away from being a muscular enforcer that can move swiftly and create fear among polluters in the style of some of its US equivalents. Does the government have a vision for such a body? If it does, hard financial commitments are required for credibility. The march on 26 October – four days before the chancellor’s budget – is well timed.

Cash from doubling council tax on second homes in North Devon should be used to address local housing issues and not go elsewhere, that’s the view of local councillors.

Alison Stephenson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Second homes cash ‘must stay in the district’

North Devon Council along with other local authorities in the county have agreed to increase property tax on second homes from next March which could bring in as much as £5 million countywide.

A report by the Devon Housing Commission recommends that this money is earmarked for addressing housing challenges and infrastructure needs across Devon.

The county’s housing crisis is believed to be exacerbated by the 11,000 second homes, as well as the rising number of empty homes and not enough affordable housing.

Councillors in North Devon welcomed the report, which they said presented an accurate and clear summary of the challenging position in Devon, but want to make sure extra funds are secured for the district.

Cllr Caroline Leaver (Lib Dem, Barnstaple South) said North Devon’s problem were significant, with only 11 per cent of people on the housing register likely to be housed this year because of a shortage of properties, and that money raised by doubling council tax should address local needs.

The council’s strategy and resources committee was told that Devon County Council receives the lion’s share of the council tax and it is for the county to decide how the money is spent, although district councils could make representations.

Cllr Leaver said: “If money is raised in North Devon and we have specific issues, the money should be spent here and not in Kingskerswell in South Devon or elsewhere. I would like to strengthen our position on that.”

The committee agreed to lobby the county council to ensure the money comes to North Devon.

The district currently has 3,673 second homes and holiday lets, which equates to seven per cent of properties, but in coastal areas like Mortehoe, Woolacombe and Georgeham near Braunton nearly 50 per cent of homes come into that category.

The council’s chief executive Ken Miles said the cash could be used collectively to solve some of the issues in the county.

“I understand the wish to get it earmarked for our district, but some of the pressures on our system are countywide and not just in North Devon.

“For example, providing accommodation in Torridge for care leavers will also benefit our care leavers. At the end of the day, it will be a political and financial issue for the county council to decide.”

The Devon Housing Commission report contains recommendations for adoption by local authorities, centre government, the proposed Devon and Torbay combined local authority and Homes England.

The recommendations for local councils include employing dedicated housing  officers to work with developers, social housing providers and across boundaries, prioritising local need over open-market demand in the planning system and increasing social rented homes and community land trusts.

The report, established by the Devon Housing Task Force made up of the 11 Devon local authorities, and supported by the University of Exeter, says the housing emergency in Devon is caused by high house and rental prices and lower incomes.

House prices are inflated by people moving from more expensive areas. Middle-aged and older people are moving in while younger people are leaving, resulting in employers having difficulties filling vacancies and key workers being unable to afford to live near their place of work.

The commission, led by Lord Richard Best, said the popularity of services such as Airbnb are responsible for properties being switched from longer-term lets, severely impacting people who need to rent.

It believes that switching from long-term to short-term lets is a key reason for the fall of 50 per cent in private lettings across the county, and by as much as 67 per cent in North Devon alone between 2019 and 2021.

“There is a real housing crisis in this county,” said Lord Best. “The problem is an acute shortage of homes affordable for the next generation.

“Homeownership is beyond the reach of first-time buyers and it is virtually impossible for those on average incomes or less to obtain a rented home that is both available and affordable. Devon is simply running out of any housing options.”

Councillors in North Devon said they were glad that Ilfracombe had been used as a case study in the report for the challenges it faced with poor quality housing, a weakness in the labour market, limited opportunities for residents and inadequate public transport.

The report says people move to the town because it is affordable because of a high number of houses of multiple occupations (HMOs) but this type of accommodation traps people in poor employment and life outcomes.