“I’m afraid I have no confidence in Southern Water,” a Reform UK Isle of Wight councillor has said to a senior executive at the company.
Councillor Debbie Conlin’s remarks on Thursday (5th November 2026) came after she asked chief operations officer Tim McMahon how people could accept another ten-year improvement plan from the firm.
The Environment Agency recently gave Southern Water a poor, one star rating – the lowest possible grade for environmental performance.
Questions over the 2020 plan
At the environment and community protection committee, Councillor Conlin said,
“Southern Water were fined £90 million in 2019. You put forward a ten-year plan to put everything right in 2020.
“It is nearly 2027 now, and Southern Water have got worse on their star rating.
“There are three years remaining for Southern Water to correct everything. How can we accept another ten-year plan for improvement?”
Tougher targets, says Southern Water
Mr McMahon replied that the £90 million was for challenges of the business around wastewater performance.
He said,
“The star rating has reduced…we’ve gone from three stars to one star but as I said if you were comparing apples with apples and how we were measured, that one star last year is the same as the three stars from 2020.
“The targets are getting harder and harder…and more stringent… which we support. We don’t want any pollutions. We want discharge permits compliance to be 100 per cent.”
Fewer pollution incidents, firm says
He said Southern Water is getting better in its performance, citing two points.
The company had 400 pollutions in 2020 and on a “like for like” basis last year had 230, the executive claimed.
Mr McMahon also said Southern Water went from its worst performance in leakage four years ago to its best last year and that the firm has a really good plan going forwards. He continued,
“It’s a big plan that we need to deliver and it’s not going to be easy for us to deliver.
“As we continue with that investment, we will see improvements in that performance but it’s just going to take time to get to where we need to.”
Councillor Conlin responded that she has no confidence in Southern Water.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
