I see that both The Mirror and The Express have both run recent articles about a “beautiful medieval UK town” full of “charming pubs” and “cosy shops”, hailed as the “perfect getaway” and named as one of the best UK towns for a holiday. This wonderful town written about is Rye, and I feel very lucky to have lived close to Rye for nearly 30 years. I know the vast majority of Rye men and women will agree.
As with all perfect holiday destinations, we recognise that at times, Rye’s popularity can sometimes overwhelm the town and frustrate residents, which is why there must be a balance between tourism and amenities for local residents. I wrote in my March column about the significant measures introduced by the government relating to holiday lets, with changes aiming to protect communities, address housing availability, and protect local residents from being pushed out of their communities by too many holiday lets.
However, all of us – local residents and tourists alike – want and expect a reliable, clean water supply. We do not expect water outages to keep tourists and visitors away, which is what Rye and surrounding villages suffered from for far too long last September and October, during our Indian summer.
Earlier this month it was Hastings, St Leonards and their surrounding villages which suffered the plight of water outages due to a burst water main. It could not have happened at a worse time, just before the May bank holiday with Jack in the Green events over the weekend and the procession on May Day itself, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors, as well as the 20,000 or so motorbikes which are traditional on May Day. The impact of water outages on local residents and businesses is bad enough, but last weekend should have provided our tourism, retail and hospitality businesses especially, a much-needed revenue boost following a particularly challenging and long winter and spring.
A reliable supply of clean water is essential to all of us, residents and businesses alike, but holds particular significance for communities which rely on leisure, tourism and hospitality because these industries cannot function without a clean water supply and flushing lavatories. As we experienced in Rye and surrounding villages last year, water shortages and outages directly impact all our local businesses.
Last Thursday, whilst people were voting at the polling stations for Hastings Borough Council and the Police and Crime Commissioner elections, I received a call from Southern Water informing me that there was a massive burst in the mains pipe supplying Hastings and St Leonards and that 19,000 properties would be without water. In fact, it was 31,000 homes which were without water. I asked Southern Water to focus on water supply and to divert a pipe, as they (eventually) did for Rye and our local villages last year whilst they looked for the leak. However, Southern Water told me that this was not possible for Hastings and St Leonards. So, bereft, I impressed upon Southern Water the importance of finding and fixing the burst pipe, and restoring mains water before the weekend was out.
Whilst water supply and infrastructure management are operational matters for Southern Water, which should have contingency plans in place, I was grateful to Steve Barclay, the Environment Secretary, for supporting my endeavours to ensure that immediate action was taken by Southern Water to find and fix the leak to save May Day, and that plans were in place to supply water to vulnerable people and establish water stations. He also offered Southern Water UK government support.
Whilst SW found the leak quickly, and strived to manage the burst pipe efficiently, it is clear that challenges relating to its infrastructure, resources and communication remain, and it is hard to see if any lessons have been learned from the Rye outages last year. Better planning and working together with other agencies are essential to improve emergency preparedness, but investment is key. Southern Water has committed to investing in measures that will reduce sewage discharges, but it must also increase investment into our local clean water supply infrastructure. I will continue to campaign for more infrastructure investment to ensure better quality water services for local residents and businesses.
Image Credits: KT Bruce .
It’s all very well for our MP Sally-Ann Hart to lament yet another Southern Water failure and claim that she and Barclay had some impact on the speed with which the Hastings incident was resolved (unlikely, in my view), but it was her party which was responsible for privatising England’s water network in 1989, which has directly led to the water company chaos we see today. She mentions challenges relating to SW’s infrastructure, resources and communication when the fundamental reason for serious pipe leaks is that private water companies have creamed off profits when the money should have been invested in the infrastructure. Essentially, many of the pipes are so old, it’s a miracle any of them are still working. The other problem is a complete failure of the regulators — Offwat and the Environment Agency — to regulate the industry properly. Once again, it was up to the government to ensure the regulators have teeth, but the regulators are utterly toothless. Ms Hart needs to take responsibility for her party’s role in the parlous situation we see today with our water network. Of course, huge sewage spills into our rivers, lakes and sea are another outcome of water privatisation and lack of regulation.
Well said! I thought privatisation was supposed to encourage investment, bring competition to bring down prices to customers. I’m not aware Southern Water have any competitors, we’re forced to use them merely by our geographic location.
It stinks like the sewage they’ve allowed to pour into our rivers and sea. The privatisation of utilities has been the flagship policy of the Tories, asset stripping and paying shareholders large dividends plus CEO’s fat bonuses while the customers pick up the tab for lack of investment.
Water is essential to human life. In a civilised country such as ours purports to be, if there is one utility that should have remained in the public sector then it is this one. In my view any Government would do well to remember this, particularly in the light of current events.
I think Stephen hit the nail right on the head CEO,s fat salary’s and bonuses, totally out of order.