Toilets in Brighton: Southern Water asked to pay after sewerage dumps

Green councillor Zoe John made the suggestion to Southern Water’s director of environment and corporate affairs Toby Willison in an exchange at Hove Town Hall.

Cllr John urged the company to compensate the people of Brighton and Hove, saying: “A gesture towards something like funding our public toilets would go a long way to understanding the impact this is having on us as a city.

“It’s a drop in the ocean for someone like Southern Water, particularly when they’re reinvesting all their profits into the business. They could see this as a real investment.

“It is something that would create positive things for the city and create positive understanding that Southern Water is trying its best and that it’s going to move forward.

“If you want us to take you seriously, if you want us to think, ‘we are doing our best, we are trying, we are moving forward,’ then it needs a big, bold gesture.

“It needs an 80s-style megabots blaster doing love songs outside someone’s window. It needs us to hear you saying, ‘we care.’ It’s a great opportunity for you to take that forward.”

Green councillor Zoe John raised the issue at a council meeting

Dr Willison said: “We will look at what we might be able to do from a community point of view. I’m not promising anything but we will look at that.”

Labour councillor Bella Sankey also criticised Southern Water’s environmental performance including discharges affecting sea water locally. She said: “Your company poses a public health risk to our residents.”

Cllr Sankey mentioned a proposal to jail chef executives and board members of water companies that were responsible for the most serious pollution incidents.

And she asked why Southern Water’s chief executive Lawrence Gosden had not shown the courtesy of coming to answer the committee’s questions – a point also made by Councillor John and others.

Councillors complained about the way that the drainage system sent “storm overflows” – a mix of rain and human waste – into the sea when there was heavy rain.

Dr Willison said that the discharges were legal and that 95 per cent was rainwater. In the past, he said, much of the waste material went into the sea untreated. This was not the case today.

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Cllr John said: “We don’t want poo in the sea. We know it’s not illegal. That’s not the point. The point is that it’s not right.”

Labour councillor Amanda Grimshaw suggested that Southern Water worked with mobile phone providers to send people text alerts asking them not to flush their toilets during heavy rain. This could cut how much sewage went into the sea.

Cllr Grimshaw said: “I know if I got a text that said, can you just hold off flushing your wee for the next five hours, I would respond to that.”

Dr Willison said that it was a “really good suggestion”.

Labour councillor Clare Moonan said that some electricity companies were texting people asking them to limit their electricity use.

She said: “When it’s raining, have a shower, not a bath. Don’t run the tap when brushing your teeth. Don’t put your dishwasher and washing machine on at the same time as they all use water. Those public messages could do with a bit more reinforcing.”

Heavy rainfall can cause sewerage to be released into the sea

The meeting – of Brighton and Hove City Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee – also heard from Geoffrey Bowden, the chair of Healthwatch Brighton and Hove.

He said that when Southern Water last sent a representative to the committee, he asked whether the company had been fined for sewage discharges. He was told that it hadn’t been.

Mr Bowden said: “The next day, there was a banner headline across all newspapers in this part of the world saying they’d had hefty fines.”

He asked how many fines had been imposed on the company in the past six months and whether they had been absorbed or “passed on to the punters”.

Dr Willison said that the company had been fined £90 million fine in 2021 and that it had been paid by the company’s shareholders.