How can this possibly be? 

South West Water has no plans in the pipeline to cut pollution (E.coli and phosphates) in river Otter, the river it uses as a “Free open sewer” to carry Honton overflows to the sea.

Has the woman no conscience? And OFWAT still no TEETH!- Owl

Water boss receives £270,000 bonus despite parasite outbreak

www.telegraph.co.uk 21 June

Former chief executive, who claimed to suffer from ‘sleepless nights’ during scandal, accepts payout

A company that pumped parasite-infected drinking water to thousands of homes in south-west England has paid a £270,000 bonus to the boss who oversaw the scandal.

Susan Davy quit last year as chief executive of Pennon, the listed group that owns South West Water, after a series of crises prompted the company to halt her bonuses.

But these payouts have been reinstated by the board.

The bonuses were initially withheld after a cryptosporidium contamination incident affecting 17,000 homes in Brixham, Devon, in May 2024. The crisis lasted 54 days and led to more than 140 people falling ill.

At the time, Ms Davy apologised to consumers, and claimed the incident led to her suffering “sleepless nights”.

However, she has accepted a £270,000 bonus for 2024-25 and an £87,000 bonus for 2025-26.

This came on top of a base salary and benefits of £561,000 for 2024-25, and £473,000 for the nine months she worked last financial year.

Together with pensions and share allocations, she earned more than £1m in 2024-25.

In its annual report, Pennon said: “The [Brixham] incident has already been reflected in directors’ remuneration, through the cancellation of the annual bonus for relevant directors in respect of the 2023-24 financial year”.

In a footnote, the company said it had initially withheld the payouts to Ms Davy while waiting for guidance from Ofwat over how the regulator would implement its newly acquired power to ban bonuses.

In March, Ofwat set out the triggers for scrapping bonuses, which include a water company being responsible for a “Category 1” pollution incident.

The Brixham incident was not Category 1. But South West Water last year had a chemical spillage at its Menagwins plant in Cornwall that reached this threshold.

The company said this meant Ms Davy’s bonuses related only to her performance across Pennon’s other companies, Bristol Water, Bournemouth Water and SES Water.

In July, South West Water was fined £1.8m for the Brixham incident after pleading guilty to supplying water unfit for human consumption and offering a “full and unreserved apology”.

Judge Stuart Smith of Exeter Court described it as “a major public health incident”.

He said the harm had been “wide-ranging and profound”, and “disruption to daily life was extensive”, claiming that South West Water had shown a “systemic failure of governance”.

After the fine, Keith Haslett, Ms Davy’s replacement as chief executive, said: “We must learn lessons from this incident and work hard to rebuild trust with the customers and communities we serve.”

An Ofwat spokesman said its new rules had blocked £4m of bonuses to water companies in its first year of operation.

“Rebuilding public trust in the water sector is vital and central to our rules on executive pay,” the spokesman said. “We are currently reviewing companies’ remuneration decisions and will not hesitate to take action where we find breaches of our rules.”

Pennon said that, in accordance with Ofwat’s new rules, the latest bonuses would be funded at group level rather than by the individual water companies, “and will therefore not be funded by customers”.