Residents and councillors attend Southern Water roadshow in Cliftonville

A Southern Water drop-in event in Cliftonville yesterday (March 11) included information on a £33million scheme being carried out to cut storm overflows and improve services in Thanet over a seven year period.

The event, at Cliftonville Community Centre, allowed people to meet members of the Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force who are working to cut storm overflows and protect the environment,  and customer teams with information about bills and support on offer for those who may be struggling to pay.

John Penicud, Managing Director for Wastewater (pictured) said: “We are stepping up our efforts in this area – and beyond – to improve our performance, and it is critical that we work with our communities and stakeholders like Thanet District Council and Kent County Council to deliver the change we all want to see.”

There was also information about nature-based solutions being rolled out to reduce the number of storm overflows; work to prevent blockages, pollutions and flooding incidents; investigations into illegally connected private pipes and how they are tackled and Southern Water’s community and schools’ education programme.

A Southern Water spokesperson said: “Between 2028-2035, we are investing more than £33million in Thanet to reduce storm overflow releases.

“We aim to tackle the huge influx of rainwater entering our combined sewer network.

“Our investigations will confirm the best approach, which is likely to include Sustainable Drainage Solutions (SuDS) and surface water separation.”

During the event, Labour candidate for the Cliftonville division seat at Kent County Council and Thanet District councillor Joanne Bright, accompanied by fellow district councillors Harry Scobie and Alan Currie, challenged Southern Water to explain how it will prevent an incident such as the Tunbridge Wells water crisis under South East Water, where thousands of homes were left without safe drinking water due to failures at a treatment works.

Cllr Bright delivered a letter to the Southern Water team at Cliftonville Community Centre, raising concerns from residents and local businesses about poor bathing water quality, sewage outfalls and the risk of water supply outages affecting Thanet’s visitor economy.

The letter, addressed to Southern Water CEO Lawrence Gosden, calls for urgent action to address what Cllr Bright describes as unacceptable service failures affecting communities in Cliftonville, Broadstairs and across Thanet.

She said the problems have damaged confidence among residents and local businesses, adding: “ It is deeply concerning that, despite sustained public scrutiny of Southern Water’s performance, residents in Thanet are still experiencing such basic service failures.

“Confidence is extremely low following the situation in Tunbridge Wells, and constituents are rightly asking what is being done to ensure a similar incident cannot happen here.”

Green Party by-election candidate Rob Yates was also at the drop-in. He said: “It was disappointing to learn that TDC hasn’t signed a data sharing agreement with Southern Water to help our lowest income residents to automatically go onto their social tariff .

“Worthing, Portsmouth, Swale and Medway have all done this and it saves residents thousands. It’s time TDC caught up.”

However, Thanet council deputy leader Helen Whitehead says TDC signed the data sharing agreement two years ago but Southern Water hasn’t ratified it “as they say they won’t take on any more social tariff customers.”

Following the meeting, Cllr Yates emailed the CEO of the Southern Water to complain that the information he had been given appeared to be incorrect. Southern Water apologised to Cllr Yates for the ‘miscommunication’ and added: “Positively, your email has enabled us to accelerate our efforts to support customers in Thanet, and we have been in touch with the council this morning to accelerate the sharing of the data.

“I can commit that we will be enrolling all eligible customers in Thanet to our support scheme as soon as we have been able to process the data, and we will ensure the discount takes effect from 1^st April, even if the processing extends beyond this date.”

Southern Water average household combined bills are set to rise by 8% this April. The increase brings the average annual bill to £759, up from £704.

Last year the water company was told to ‘get a grip’ by the Environment Agency after 269 pollution incidents were reported for 2024.

The figures were revealed in the Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) with 2024 having the lowest ratings across the country’s nine water companies since the process began in 2011.

The EPA report is an independent comparison of environmental performance across the sector. Since 2011, the Environment Agency has used the EPA to rate each company in England from 1 star to 4 stars, to highlight where improvement in water company performance is required.

In 2024, the nine companies collectively achieved just 19 stars out of a possible 36, down from 25 in 2023. Only Severn Trent Water received the top four-star rating for industry-leading EPA performance.

Southern Water received a 2 star rating. In 2024 it was responsible for 269 pollution incidents, 35 more than the previous year. Fifteen of these were classed as serious pollution incidents.