Yesterday afternoon I met with the CEO and COO of Southern Water about recent outages affecting my constituents. It is clear that many constituents' faith in SW over recent events has meant confidence has been lost including mine. I also raised water discharges.
Last week was caused by mechanical failure at the Otterbourne Treatment Works, and I and my colleagues called for increased investment, they outlined that instead of a single tank holding water, they’ll soon be three meaning there are delivery alternatives and supply shouldn’t fail.
I pressed strongly on compensation and we managed to get a commitment to have compensation doubled to £180 to anyone who has been affected by both outages, costing £3,000,000. We also got a commitment to compensation on a case-by-case basis for businesses affected by the outages.
Overall I made it clear that Southern Water isn’t delivering for my constituents and that we’ll be calling for better enforcement and oversight of this company.
