Exmouth beach news: 'Anger' and 'emotions high' as campaign brews to 'stop paying water bills' to South West Water after major sewage spill
A movement to “stop paying water bills” is being considered in a town in Devon after a major sewage spill - as locals have “had enough”.
Geoff Crawford, a resident in Exmouth, Devon, told NationalWorld that tourists “have left” the town, “businesses are empty and watersports curtailed”, after a sewer pipe burst causing raw waste to leak into the sea. The sewer pipe burst at Maer Road pumping station on Wednesday 14 August prompting 'do not bathe' warnings from the local council and the Environment Agency (EA).
Mr Crawford said year-round swimmers were forced not to go swimming and “everyone has now had enough.” He has been running the ESCAPE (End Sewage Convoys And Pollution Exmouth) page for four years on Facebook and said “during that time many people have called for a campaign to stop paying water bills on mass.”
He added that the “current anger amongst Exmouth residents has led me to test the sentiment and potential commitment for such an action”. Mr Crawford is running a poll on its Facebook page to ask people who would “seriously consider this course of action”. He said: “It would focus South West Water’s (SWW) mind on fixing the issues in Exmouth if mainly Exmouth residents withheld payment but we would still need a considerable number of households to commit for it to work.”
He added: “The response in two days has been 227 people say they would withhold, 93 would withhold the sewage element of the bill and 77 need it to be a group led and guided process. I have said that at 1,000 I would look to work to take this forward.”
He found that by creating this poll “several said that they had already stopped paying” and “many more said that they cancelled their direct debit, waited for the paper bill instead and then withhold the sewage part of the bill”, adding “several had done this for months and received no communication from SWW.” Mr Crawford told NationalWorld that he has “never promoted” the approach to stop paying water bills as he does not want to “encourage people to potentially go into debt” and he “doesn't believe it will work unless a great majority of bill payers do it.”
Mr Crawford added that he still “shares these concerns” however the current anger from local has led him to “test the sentiment and potential commitment for such an action.” He said “emotions are high and there is anger at SWW in Exmouth.”
He told NationalWorld that the “same thing happened over the Christmas period, the other main sewage rising main burst three times and tankers flooded the streets whilst sewage flooded the river Exe and the sea.” He added: “People’s Christmases were disturbed as tankers and HGVs trundled across town 24/7 keeping people awake through the night, ripping up the park land where the pumping stations was and the tarmac of the quiet residential streets not designed for such large articulated tankers.
“None stated what they were carrying other than ‘non-hazardous liquid’ and who they were carrying it for so people turned to social media to find out that SWW had contracted hundreds of tankers from as far afield as Birmingham and London to camp in Exmouth overnight. Huge lucrative contracts wasted on tankers whilst investment in infrastructure was ignored.”
He said at the time “apologies were made by the highest levels of SWW even as the sewer burst again and again.” According to Mr Crawford, SWW “upgraded the pumps but not the rising main pipes nor the sewage treatment works which also overflowed down the country lanes three times last year.
“Now the sewer pipe has burst again”, Mr Crawford said, adding “and SWW will carry on regardless.” Mr Crawford said he currently has German guests staying at his home.
He told NationalWorld: “They will be wondering why they booked a holiday in what must seem like an industrial estate or lorry park by the sea. I’m sure they will give me a bad review, will put others off and will not be returning. The damage to Exmouth’s tourism industry is not measurable and SWW don't seem to care much about reputation.”
SWW has announced that it has completed a temporary fix and tankers will remain at the Maer Road site as a precaution while this work is completed. It said: “We would like to thank residents and visitors for their patience, and we are sorry for the disruption caused throughout this event.”
The water firm added: “Our teams continue to work around the clock in Exmouth and we fully understand the disruption this is causing. We have put a temporary fix in place to the initial burst which is holding well. We continue to do everything possible to protect the environment and our tankers are in place to ensure that we can mitigate impact to the environment, including the changing weather conditions.
“We are investing around £38 million in the Exmouth area up to 2030. This includes upgrading our pumping stations and treatment works to significantly reduce the number of spills and further protect the environment.”