Chichester MP inspects Southern Water’s sites and questions CEO

Liberal Democrat MP, Jess Brown-Fuller, toured some of Southern Water’s operations in the Chichester constituency last week and met up with its CEO Lawrence Gosden.
Among the issues she raised were the large increases in bills that are being proposed, how the company plans to reduce sewage overflows and prevent sewage backing up into people’s homes, and its proposals to pump recycled effluent into Havant Thicket reservoir.

During the tour Jess was shown pipe patching work Southern Water is undertaking in Funtington, as part of a project to reduce flooding in the area. Existing pipes are ‘patched’ with a resin that hardens within 45 minutes to keep out ground water. Southern Water can patch up to 60 metres of sewer in a day. Jess also visited the Wastewater Treatment Works at Lavant, that has been successfully trialling the introduction of a wetlands to treat the water as a nature-based solution. Southern Water hopes to introduce similar projects across other Wastewater Treatment works. 

“I am encouraged by Southern Water’s level of engagement with local residents and councillors at Funtington and the work it is doing to prepare pipes, which I hope will be replicated in areas across the constituency with similar challenges,” said Jess.

“During the meeting and tour, I was able to have a full and frank discussion with Lawrence Gosden and other Southern Water staff. I informed him of the concerns raised to me by constituents concerning sewage spills and rising bills. While he reassured me that work was being done to improve capacity and capability, I made it clear that more still needs to be done,” she said.

“I also will continue to scrutinise Southern Water’s Havant Thicket reservoir project. While I very much support Portsmouth Water’s creation of a new freshwater reservoir at Havant Thicket, I am urging regulators and Defra to fully interrogate Southern Water’s proposals to introduce recycled effluent into the reservoir which will provide drinking water for 18 constituencies across the southeast of England,” said the MP.

The energy-intensive reverse osmosis effluent recycling project will cost £1.2 billion and will be the first time this technology has been used in the UK to provide drinking water. Southern Water’s proposal is due to the Southeast being designated as ‘water stressed’ and intends to use the project to reduce abstraction on the rivers Test and Itchin. Consumers can write to DEFRA with their views on the proposal by December 4, 2024 at water.resource@defra.gov.uk