More than 20 councils across the southeast of England have come together over “major concerns” felt towards Southern Water dumping sewage in the sea and rivers.

At a recent meeting, a stakeholder group of nearly 25 authorities from Hampshire, West Sussex and Kent along with the Environment Agency came together to petition the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as part of a campaign to hold Southern Water responsible for pollution and infrastructure failures.

Simon Moody, the Environment Agency’s area director for Solent and South Downs, said: ”The organisation is holding water companies – including Southern Water – to account to reduce pollution, tackle storm overflows and invest more of their profits into the environment.”

Southern Water is responsible for wastewater discharges across the region and for drinking water in other parts of the southeast. It was rated two stars out of four in a national rating scheme for its performance.

The water company has previously had to apologise for issues including flooding, sewage seeping into people’s homes, gardens and roads, the ongoing problem of discharges into rivers and waterways and the inability to deal with additional development.

Councillor Elizabeth Lloyd, cabinet lead for planning, environmental health and the environment at Havant Borough Council said: “As a council, we have major concerns about some of the actions taken by Southern Water. Their performance surrounding the number of pollution incidents that occur in our borough’s coastal waters is not satisfactory.

“We are not the only ones to have these concerns, and by coming together in
partnership with other authorities to form this stakeholder group, we hope to be able to hold Southern Water to account on behalf of all our residents, tourism visitors and water sport enthusiasts.”

This month, Southern Water has said a £1.5 billion investment will “get to the root cause” of sewage flowing into the sea when large volumes of rain flood the sewers