Southern Water labelled as 'criminal' by Havant Borough Council following review of wastewater data

The council has reported that a current ‘lack of trust’ in data provided by Southern Water ‘presents a risk to the process of producing a new local plan’. The council uses Southern Water data to inform the new local plan which is in the early stages of development.

It was proposed in September that the council commissions independent expert consultancy advice to review the data for planning purposes. However, the validity of Southern Water’s data has been called into question by senior councillors in the past.

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In a recent full council meeting, councillor Elizabeth Lloyd, cabinet lead for local plan, environment and water quality said: ‘In 2019 OFWAT announced that Southern Water agreed to pay £126m following serious failures in the operation of its sewage treatment sites and for deliberately misreporting its performance. The actions of Southern Water over the past few years where these criminal activities have been found have rightly caused concern to members and our residents.

‘That concern is not only because of the pollution but also because it leads them to question the capacity of the wastewater treatment works at Budds Farm and Thornham for more housing in the borough. It is then essential that all data and information used for the production of the new 'Building a Better Future' local plan can be relied upon so the inspectors can find it to be sound in every regard.’

Cllr Alex Rennie, leader of the council, added: ‘Our residents are very concerned about the activities of Southern Water and I think we owe it to them to do a job of really diving through the information that they give us. The history and story of Southern Water over the last four, five, six years is one of failure, is one of criminal activity and they have been held responsible by various independent regulators and they’ve been fined.

‘We’re taking strong action on this because our residents expect us to take strong action on this.’