After a long dry spell the heavens have opened over South West England once again. Here is this evening’s WaterFit Live map from South West Water:
In our corner of Devon there have been multi-hour CSO activations at Woolacombe, Ilfracombe and Lynmouth, plus our nearest surfing beach at Widemouth Bay in North Cornwall:
According to South West Water's "Service Updates" web page this afternoon: Boil water notice – Alston and the Hillhead area of Brixham We have set up a bottled water collection…
On March 5th a debate was held in the Grand Committee Room next to Westminster Hall concerning the “Performance of South West Water”.
You can read the transcript of the entire session in Hansard if so desired. Alternatively you can watch a recording of the entire session.
The debate was opened by Simon Jupp MP as follows:
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the performance of South West Water.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Henderson. I am delighted to have secured this important debate, one year on from another debate that I secured on the performance of South West Water. It is another opportunity to hold South West Water to the highest possible standards in the House.
Last year, I described the performance of our water company and its historic lack of investment as “shameful”, and many of my constituents shared my point of view. This year, I want to focus my speech on the facts facing my constituency of East Devon. The public want to see evidence of improvement and delivery of the promised investment, and they want South West Water to clean up its act and our water. South West Water must deliver better services for our constituents, improve our bathing waters, and protect our natural environment. Not doing so puts the vibrancy of our coastal communities under threat.
More on all that later. However, we’re going to start our discussion with the speech given by the Member of Parliament for North Devon, Selaine Saxby. Here is a recording of her presentation:
Ms. Saxby’s opening remarks were as follows:
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