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Our growing movement of water company customers, who are now boycotting the wastewater element of their bills in protest at sewage dumping, gained massive media attention last week with no fewer than three features in the “i” News.
Journalist, Kyriakos Petrakos, contacted me on Wednesday 31st January for details of the boycott after reading on this Whitstable Views platform how four of us began withholding payment in October 2021, three months after Southern Water had received a record criminal fine of £90 million for unlawful sewage releases into our seas and waterways. Kyriakos then visited Whitstable on Friday 2nd February to meet a group of local swimmers and boycotters who were able to join us on the beach that day to give filmed interviews to the paper.
The first news feature then went out on February 4th explaining how Boycott Water Bills came about, and my own plans to make a counter claim against Southern Water:
And the online piece on this link has a filmed interview:
https://inews.co.uk/news/woman-refuse-payment-sewage-southern-water-2884240#
A second feature followed on February 8th reporting on health issues experienced by Whitstable swimmers:
And the online piece featured filmed interviews with Whitstable musician and cold water swimmer, Roddy Skeaping, and swimmer and boycotter, Cathy Bradley:
https://inews.co.uk/news/whistable-bay-sewage-swimmers-health-2894614
A third news piece featured the growing number of payment boycotters nationwide, including my co-campaigner, Katy Colley in Hastings, Whitstable yoga teacher, Liz Foreman and boycotters in Weymouth, including Caz Dennett from Extinction Rebellion (XR) which has been supporting this boycott action since October last year:
And the online piece again featured the filmed interviews with Roddy and Cathy:
https://inews.co.uk/news/sea-swimmers-bills-sewage-2896587
These three news pieces follow a recent “i” news article on 30th January about Weymouth swimmer and boycotter, Jo Bateman, who is counter claiming against South West Water for “loss of amenity”:
https://inews.co.uk/news/swimmer-suing-sewage-leaks-exmouth-2879410
We are also in touch with fellow boycotter, Mike Deacon, who has issued a counter claim against Southern Water for “loss of amenity”, in Mike’s case fishing, as he is an angler.
Link to Guardian piece: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/14/i-wont-pay-for-them-to-pollute-my-river-why-a-uk-water-bills-boycott-is-growing
Needless to say, the media attention has resulted in many more people getting in touch with us via our Boycott Water Bills website to join us in this action.
Our website was set up to offer help and advice to anyone who wanted more information on boycotting payment for a wastewater service we do not feel we have been receiving and we believe there are now thousands of people who are now boycotting payment in all 11 wastewater company areas in England and Wales.
For more information, please go to: https://www.boycottwaterbills.com
Huge thanks to Kyriakos Petrakos and “i” News.
STOP PRESS: Katy has been featured in the Telegraph today (14th February) as follows:
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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