Council Anger: “They Have Trashed our Town”
PAUL McLAUGHLIN
Trust in Southern Water amongst Hastings Borough Councillors has plunged to a new low in the wake of last month’s town centre flooding. At a simmering meeting of the full council last Wednesday (22 November) to discuss an updated report looking into the performance of the privatised water company, councillors of all political persuasions vented their anger and frustration at the poor levels of service experienced by local residents over recent years.
Andy Patmore, the Leader of the Conservative Group, was brutal in his assessment of Southern Water. He referenced the recently published Ardent Report into January’s flooding of the town centre, saying it was a “pile of rubbish” and he lambasted the company’s “lack of honesty” and its “failure to feed into the report process”.
Paul Barnett, the Labour Leader of the Hastings BC, said he too had been “horrified” at Southern Water’s record of failure. He said he was highly critical of the company’s inability to work out what was needed to fix problems and to come up with long term solutions, preferring instead to adopt short-term fixes even when they have been advised that those solutions are not adequate. He pointed to the new flooding of the town centre last month as a prime example of this attitude.
However, the Council Leader said he had “detected a new awareness” from the senior management of Southern Water in the wake of last month’s flooding “to take responsibility for the problems” and that “at last” they were beginning to understand that the level of service they were providing was just not good enough.
He reaffirmed the Council’s threat to take legal action against Southern Water if the privatised water company was not able to convince him and his colleagues of their commitment to improving the levels of service. He did indicate, though, that he would prefer not to go down the road of suing the company because of time and cost considerations. He said he was still awaiting Southern Water’s formal response to his letter threatening legal action and would not comment any further until they did so.
Labour’s Mike Turner summed up the frustrations of many of his colleagues when he said he “had lost all trust in Southern Water” and did “not believe a word they say”. He urged the council to join with other similarly affected local authorities along the south coast to take legal action against the company. “They have trashed our town,” he said.
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