Bob Geldof supports boycott
Sussex water customers refuse to pay for pollution
by
In 2021, I joined 3 other concerned Whitstable residents; Emma Gibson, her partner (the now Green Party councillor) Steve Wheeler and a Conservative councillor, Ashley Clark, in boycotting payment of Southern Water due to the company’s criminal record on sewage pollution and its continuing sewage spills. Emma and I took legal advice and decided against promoting this action widely in case any debt recovery action affected vulnerable residents. However, as a small group of committed individuals we agreed to accept the consequences in order to make a stand against Southern Water’s environmental pollution.
Once local newspapers reported our action in November last year, Bob Geldof then offered us his vocal support when he spoke out at a meeting in Faversham as follows:
“Don’t pay your water bills to Southern Water, they can **** off”. I can’t understand why this giant utility company can’t be held to account. Why aren’t the board liable? Why aren’t they going to jail? I really don’t understand it. They are doing vile harm to adults and children who go swimming, and vile harm to livelihoods. How are they allowed to do this? I’m absolutely certain that if there was a one-year minimum custodial sentence for them, then it would stop. God bless those people of Whitstable. I’ll be right there to join them, in fact I’ll join them immediately.”
I spoke to Bob a week later and thanked him for his comments which clearly had helped to raise more awareness of this issue. News of our boycott soon spread to the national press as follows:
Since then, many more customers have joined us in withholding payments to their own water companies across the country, including United Utilities in Lancashire and South West Water in Devon.
Last week, I was very pleased to be contacted by Southern Water payment boycotters in Hastings who were then featured in a comprehensive piece on BBC South East TV News on Wednesday 24th May.
It can be viewed on this link:
And here’s a BBC written report on the Hastings action:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-65683344
And I’ve great pleasure in introducing 5 of the Hastings boycotters right here with their own statements.
I don’t want my money going to these criminal polluters. I don’t want to pay for dividends – either internal or external – and I don’t want to service their massive debts.
Katy Colley, Campsite owner, boycotter for 5 months, writes:
I DON’T WANT MY MONEY GOING TO THESE CRIMINAL POLLUTERS
It started with vomit. A lot of vomit.
One day last August I went for a dip, as I did most days in the summer, and a few hours later I had horrific stomach cramps followed by several bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea.
From that day on I thought twice about getting in the sea, which was devastating. I love living by the coast and feel so at home in the water. Now it was flooded with effluence and E.coli and instead of feeling excited about getting in, I was anxious.
In 2001 Southern Water admitted deliberately pouring billions of litres of raw sewage into the ocean but despite a record fine, the ‘spills’ went on – there were 16,000 in 2022 alone. Enough was enough.
When my water bill came in December, I decided to continue paying for incoming water but I would no longer pay for wastewater disposal since they weren’t doing this responsibly or safely.
I have since complained to Southern Water, to the Consumer Council of Water, the Environment Agency and my local council and so far, nobody tells me I have to pay.
Why? Because they know we are right. If all Southern Water customers stopped paying for ‘wastewater’ disposal overnight, the company would be in trouble pretty quickly.
I don’t want my money going to these criminal polluters. I don’t want to pay for dividends – either internal or external – and I don’t want to service their massive debts. I believe we need to take back our water supply and put our money into infrastructure and maintenance. Don’t tell me it’s not possible when the government privatized Northern Rock overnight and five rail franchises have already been renationalized.
Time’s up. They’ve had 30 years to get this right and they have failed. Water is simply too precious to leave in private hands.
Olivia Cavanagh, Immigration advisor, and boycotter for 2 years, writes:
IT’S THE ONLY WAY I CAN TAKE A STAND
I stopped paying when it came out that Southern Water was fined £90 million for deliberately dumping raw sewage in the sea. I thought: What is it I’m paying for?
It is fraudulent to ask Southern Water customers to pay that money. So, I stopped paying the ‘water treatment’ part of my bill, I kept paying for incoming water services.
Initially, when I had contact with Southern Water I explained my decision and they couldn’t explain what they were doing to rectify the situation or why I was paying for the water treatment service if the wastewater wasn’t being treated. Then the debt collection agency got in touch and initially they offered £50 off the £80 bill as a ‘goodwill gesture’, which I agreed to on the condition that untreated sewage spills wouldn’t happen again. And, of course, it happened again so I stopped paying again.
I’ve had some sympathetic conversations with Southern Water. However, one woman at UK Search told me that regardless of whether the wastewater is put into the sea, I had received the service, she later apologised when I pointed out that from an environmental stance this was an unacceptable thing to say.
It is not about the money; I want Southern Water to stop ruining our environment.
How can we watch David Attenborough telling us that our planet is close to dying and accept this? I wish more people would join this protest. The more of us that do it, the more they’ll be forced to sit up and pay attention.
They have left me alone for a long time now. No one is chasing me for payment and I don’t think what we’re doing is illegal. What else can we do?
I can’t sue Southern Water. They’ve got us over a barrel because they’ve got the monopoly, they are our water provider. It’s the only way I can take a stand.
If they say now they’re going to do something about it, maybe it’s because people like us are doing this and it’s getting to them.
Dr Felicity Laurence, retired university lecturer, boycotter for 1 month, writes:
THIS IS NOW AN ETHICAL CONSIDERATION – I WON’T BE COMPLICIT IN CRIMINAL ACTIVITY
Apart from the clear injustice of being compelled to pay for a service which is simply not being provided – that is, the responsible disposal of wastewater from my property – a further ethical question arises. By paying this part of my bill, I am enabling Southern Water to continue a practice that the Environment Agency (EA) itself considers to be so serious that in 2021 they launched what they described as their ‘largest ever criminal regulatory investigation’. By mid-2022 the EA were proclaiming the level of pollution so ‘appalling’ that it warranted jail terms for water company bosses.
Southern Water was revealed as being the very worst offender, with ‘the highest rate of total pollution incidents per 10,000 sq km in 2021’. In their most recent update of this ‘major criminal investigation’ (November 2022), the EA, while stating its wish to ‘see fines for water companies which are significant enough to concentrate the minds of board members and shareholders’, provide startling confirmation of outright criminality in respect of Southern Water:
In 2020, Southern Water received a record £90m fine for corporate environmental crime.
Southern Water has the catchy logo ‘Water for Life’. While their outrageous profits would be enough fatally to undermine this sentiment, the criminality now exposed takes this to the point of obscenity.
I cannot be complicit in what is so clearly confirmed to be criminal activity, and I refuse to support any longer the poisoning of our waters.
Laura Coppin, consultant and artist, boycotter for 5 months, writes:
NAKED AND VERY INTENTIONAL PROFITEERING, AND WE’RE THE ONES PAYING FOR IT
My name is Laura Coppin, and I’ve lived in St Leonards on Sea for the past three and a half years. For more than a year I haven’t been able to swim in the sea – every time I’ve tried, there’s been a sewage alert due to Southern Water dumping sewage. This area is tied to the ocean; from Hastings’ sustainable fishing fleet and the tourism many businesses depend on, to the myriad of creatures and precious ecosystems that call its shores and waterways home. All of them, from the top to the bottom, are suffering because of Southern Water’s criminal actions.
Nor are we alone – across the UK private water and sewage companies paid out £1.4bn to shareholders in 2022, while sewage was released into our waterways 825 times a day. This is naked and very intentional profiteering, and we’re the ones paying for it – both financially and with the future of our planet. The government has shown it’s not willing to act, and regulators have only issued fines far smaller than the cost of companies changing their ways; legal for a price, you might say. These monopolies are an abuse of power, profiting off something that is the basic right of all living beings on this planet and something that should never be in private hands. The only way to have our voices heard is to speak their language – and that language is money.
Sam Glazer, a freelance musician and dad to two young children, writes:
A BILL BOYCOTT IS THE ONLY WAY TO REGISTER A MEANINGFUL PROTEST
I grew up in Brighton and have always loved swimming in the sea. Since moving back to the coast a couple of years ago I’ve been horrified to discover the frequency with which Southern Water are discharging sewage onto the beach at the bottom of my road in St Leonards.
It seems self-evident to me that we should all by common birthright be entitled to enjoy our coasts, woodlands and wild places, without risking exposure to illegal pollution. Southern Water have been able to avoid investing in any significant new infrastructure in the decades since privatisation, whilst extracting vast sums of capital for shareholders, loading the company with debt, and concealing the chicanery with byzantine financial and legal structures. Meanwhile they are routinely pumping foul water into the sea, failing to fulfil one of their two core objectives and blighting the environment for all of us who live, work and visit here.
Southern Water are full of fine words promising investment but here on the ground there is no evidence that things are improving. As a customer I have no option to take my business elsewhere – they are a monopoly provider – and as such, a bill boycott is the only way to register a meaningful protest.
Sam has boycotted 4 times since September 2001 but always paid up in the end. He says:
‘Am feeling more confident to persist now!’
Katy Colley was also interviewed on BBC Radio Sussex on Friday 26th May. You can hear the complete interview here:
And you can read an article by Olivia Cavanagh in the Hastings Independent here:
https://www.hastingsindependentpress.co.uk/community/we-wont-pay-for-environmental-vandalism/
IMPORTANT NOTE
While the boycott is clearly spreading – and a BBC Question Time audience member recently advocated this (to much applause from both the audience and QT panel member Nick Ferrari) it’s important to note that withholding payment can impact credit ratings.
The following are some of the steps Southern Water have warned they can take against boycotters:
- Refer your account to a debt collection company – which may take legal action on our behalf to recover the debt. (This will incur administration costs of at least £45.)
- Take legal action – which might involve asking the court to instruct your employers to make deductions from your salary – plus legal costs.
- Notify a credit reference agency – which means a default will be registered on your consumer credit file for the next 6 years.
However, even in cases where the company has set a debt recovery company on to our boycotters, we have been able to persuade the debt recovery company to refer the debt back to Southern Water, as was reported by Adam Vaughan in The Times here:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/southern-water-bills-kent-sewage-spills-clean-it-up-pmbtnvdxk
Understandably, not everyone will be in a position to join the payment boycott, so you might like to know that customers are also making a stand by cancelling their direct debit plans with water companies and choosing instead to pay their bills by debit card over the phone or by cheque – as late as possible. By doing so, customers will be interrupting potential cash flow for the companies and sending a clear message to them to clean up their act.
You can also make your voice heard by signing a petition begun by Ed Acteson of our local campaign group, SOS-Whitstable, which calls for the renationalisation of our water industry and, as I write, has received over 275,000 signatures:-
https://www.change.org/p/return-the-water-industry-to-public-ownership
I would very much like to thank all the Hastings boycotters, with whom I am remaining in close contact – and all those from other areas in the UK who have contacted me to let me know they have taken similar action to end the abhorrent practice of sewage dumping in our seas and rivers.
You can follow the Hastings boycotters on their Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/hastingsboycottssouthernwater/
Our joint message remains “Can Pay – Won’t Pay – until Southern Water cleans up its act”!
ABOUT:
Julie Wassmer is a Whitstable-based author, TV writer and environmental campaigner.
She has successfully fought a number of environmental issues, including fracking in Kent and tree clearances by Network Rail. Her Whitstable Pearl crime novels are now a major TV series, starring Kerry Godliman.
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