South West Water has been fined almost £8m at Plymouth Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to 18 criminal charges relating to hundreds of illegal sewage discharges across Cornwall and Devon. The offences spanned January 2015 to July 2021, with 17 charges covering illegal water discharge activities and one charge for failing to take reasonable remedial measures following a failure at a pumping station. The district judge described it as a record fine for the region, stating that incidents of pollution cannot be tolerated.
Among the incidents cited in the proceedings, untreated sewage gushed through the harbour wall at Polperro on the south coast of Cornwall on a bank holiday weekend in August 2019, with South West Water engineers taking 10 hours to attend. Between January 2016 and July 2021, there were 231 illegal sewage discharges at Harlyn on the north coast of Cornwall. Clarissa Newell, area environment manager at the Environment Agency, said hundreds of pollution incidents occurred at some of the most scenic locations in Cornwall and Devon, including bathing waters, a designated special area of conservation and a priority habitat [Source: Environment Agency]. Environment Secretary Angela Eagle said that for six years South West Water repeatedly broke the law.
South West Water is owned by London-listed Pennon Group (PNN.L), which has a market capitalisation of approximately £2.18bn and around 471.73m shares in issue. Pennon shares traded around 461.80p, down 1.07% intraday, with a 52-week range of 439.25p to 605.00p. Pennon said the case related to historic matters between 2015 and 2021, with the majority of the charges concerning the use of overflows in storm conditions. The group added that South West Water is investing £760m to tackle storm overflows and has reduced spills by 17% in the last year, with spill duration down 25%. South West Water has 56 days to pay all the penalties in full.
The fine marks an escalation in regulatory action against the utility. South West Water was previously prosecuted in 2023 over 13 charges relating to offences between July 2016 and August 2020 and was fined £2.15m on that occasion. The company has also pleaded guilty to six further criminal charges relating to spills at Holywell Sewage Pumping Station, with sentencing on those matters to be dealt with at a later date.
Sources: Sky News, The Guardian, BBC News, Exmouth Journal, Environment Agency, London South East, Yahoo Finance, finwire.io