A former councillor criticised local sea water quality and called for the water companies to be renationalised during a question time session at Hove Town Hall.
Former Labour councillor Anne Pissaridou, who later sat as an Independent, asked councillors to lobby the government during a Brighton and Hove City Council meeting yesterday (Thursday 10 July).
Mrs Pissaridou said that she was aware of people who had fallen ill after swimming in the sea in Hove.
And she added that since the old water authorities were privatised in 1989, all 10 of the main water companies in England and Wales had been convicted of criminal offences.
Southern Water had been named as one of the top four offenders by the Environment Agency, she said.
She urged councillors to call on the government to “make good on their pledge” to restore the water companies to public ownership.
Mrs Pissaridou said: “There have been reports of incidents of water pollution in the vicinity of the King Alfred Leisure Centre recently and that this has resulted in swimmers needing hospital treatment.
“Can you tell me how many people in our city have been affected by the poor quality of water in our sea – and coming out of our taps – and how serious these incidents have been in terms of the effect on the health of those affected please?”
Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, the council’s cabinet member for net zero and environmental services, said that there was no evidence that drinking water was unsafe, adding that it was completely separate from the water discharged into the sea.
Councillor Rowkins said that he was “aghast” at water companies discharging sewage into rivers and the sea.
He said: “As a coastal tourist destination, as well as a city of keen swimmers, we take it very seriously indeed.
“That’s why we set up year-round sea water testing via a citizen science project to supplement the seasonal testing already done by the Environment Agency.
“We also incorporated reactive testing into that regime as well so when there are suspicions of discharges, proper data can be made available.”
The UK Health Security Agency monitored and responded to outbreaks, he said, and reported them to the relevant public health team.
But the team in Brighton and Hove had received no notifications of illness linked to bathing water.
When the Environment Agency last tested bathing waters in Hove at the end of last month, they were rated as “excellent”, he said.
Councillor Rowkins said that he was in constant contact with the group Citizen Science carrying out the year-round tests and reactive checks. It shared the results on Instagram @BHseacheck.
The group’s data on e.coli levels showed that the quality of sea water was excellent but Mrs Pissaridou said that she was not convinced about water safety in Hove.
Privatised, but you still can’t choose your provider.
We really need some background stuff here, because life is complicated and issues are nuanced.
I am no fan of Southern Water, and I’m currently refusing to pay the inflated bill they have sent me for my one bedroom flat, partly because they won’t respond to my request for a meter to be fitted, and secondly because they are charging me more for my water than I pay for my heating and energy bill.
The other people in our building are not paying for water at all, due to Southern Water’s billing incompetence, plus the drain at the end of our road is constantly blocked, because it’s not cleaned of silt and mud.
This is the real world of a privatised water company. Southern Water really are a Mickey Mouse operation.
At the same time, we have to remember that when Southern Water were first privatised, the one thing they did do was to build a massive drain water storage tunnel under Brighton seafront. We’ve already paid for that, via our water bills, because at the time there was no government financing.
This is a unique facility we have for our city, and it means that, when the heavy rains come, our drains do not – or need not – flow into the sea at our local beaches.
As a waterman, I use the local beaches most days to swim or to go windsurfing or paddle boarding, and since that tunnel was built I have not had the health issues many of us used to regularly get after a session in the surf.
I can’t say that Southern Water use the tunnel as it was intended, or all the time, but I can say we are in a much better situation locally, than for other nearby resorts.
The theory for our storage tunnel is it collects the excess run off water and other rain and river surges that would otherwise flood straight into the sea. Once stored, the excess water can then be filtered more carefully at the sewage treatment plants at either end of this tunnel – above the Marina and at Shoreham harbour – before cleaner fluids are then released.
On topic, if it’s true there have been people who were taken ill recently after swimming near the King Alfred then, for sure this must be investigated. I’d like to know first, how often the local sea water is currently being tested, and whether that testing happens year round – because this is the fact-based approach.
At the same time, when there’s a more serious national problem, or nearby at other towns, which we don’t have, it’s perhaps key to not make things up.
I’ll add that I support Surfers Against Sewage, both politically and financially, for their national campaigns, but their scare tactics for local Brighton waters are not actually factually-based.
Considering Ann Pissaridou was suspended from the Labour Party, is no longer a councillor, and doesn’t represent anybody, what does it matter what Anne Pissaridou thinks about sea water quality?
Perhaps she’d like to explain what she means by “poor quality of water in our sea – and coming out of our taps” – because AFAIK the city’s sea water has no problems with sewage and tap water is perfectly safe?
Or is Anne just jumping on a populist bandwagon and hoping to join her hero Jeremy Corbyn’s breakaway party?
The Labour administration welcomes all residents to come to the council meeting and raise their concerns.
Anne Pissaridou, who people may recall was a former councillor and during the last Labour administration was Chair of the Environment Transport and Sustainability (ETS) when in 2019 BHCC won
the highest award possible of 3 stars
when environmental agency’s inspectors took samples from the sea water
Cllr Anne Pissaridou, chair of the council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee, said: “This is really great news for everyone who uses the beach and the sea
We can all use the sea in the knowledge that we are bathing in clean, safe waters. It’s particularly reassuring for families with children.”
If residents are now raising concerns about possible harmful water pollutants, it is not surprising that she would ask the current cabinet member what may have changed during the last Green administration that followed her.
And this the same seawater our Governments allow dumping of sewage into, owned by an Australian Investment company that have no interest in anything with little to no returns to their investors, now they want to charge us more because we have a few sunny days ??? do we get a discount in the rainweather ???
I know everyone likes to have a drama about climate change and other green issues – and rightly so, usually.
But in this case it’s worth pointing out that the local beaches are full this weekend – because of the heatwave weather.
And everyone is going in the water for a swim, and the seawater is lovely and warm, so you can stay in there for a while. And NO-ONE is getting ill.
For sure the city beach sea water should be tested regularly, then we’ll know for sure what’s safe, and when it’s not.
And indeed the cyclical summer weather changes from Monday, with possible heavy rain this next week as we shift from high pressure overhead to more changeable conditions.
It’s only after that heavy rain – especially when that follows a period of dry weather – that we hear of drain run off causing pollution incidents.
Let’s stick to science and facts please.