Group expands legal claim over South West Water sewage pollution

A group legal claim against South West Water alleging sewage pollution into coastal waters is harming businesses and individuals has been expanded across Devon and Cornwall.Thousands more individuals could now join the first environmental community group legal action against a water company over the impact of sewage pollution.Until now 1,400 people from Exmouth had joined the legal action but Leigh Day said on Wednesday it was being expanded to residents and businesses across Dawlish, Sidmouth, Teignmouth in Devon and Newquay and Penzance in Cornwall.The claim argues failings by South West Water are wide and entrenched in many coastal towns across the Devon and Cornwall region, rather than just the Exmouth area.Tina Naldrett is one of the campaigners to have joined the claim. Photograph: Tina Naldrett.Tina Naldrett, 62, a nurse from Dawlish, has joined the claim, after years in which she has seen the pollution at her beach get worse.“When the sea is clear, and you can see your feet, the sun is on your back and you hear the gulls, it is free magic,” she said. “But more often I take friends into the water and we see sanitary products floating past, the plastic from tampons, actual effluent and the foam from effluent. It is getting worse.“Water companies don’t own the sea. We are an island nation, the sea belongs to us all and for water companies to use the sea in this way feels immoral and ethically bankrupt.”In 2024 South West Water discharged 544,429 hours of raw sewage into seas and coastal waters, including an overflow at Salcombe Regis that discharged for almost the whole year – making it the longest sewage release duration across all the storm overflow sites in England and Wales.Last July Ofwat issued a £24m enforcement penalty against South West Water identifying systemic failings in the way it maintained and operated its wastewater treatment works and sewer networks dating back to at least 2017.Spills of raw sewage via combined storm overflows are only allowed, and considered legal, if they take place after exceptional circumstances, such as extreme rainfall, when the system is at risk of being overwhelmed. But more than half of South West Water’s treatment plants were spilling regularly into the environment, Ofwat said.The legal claim launched in 2024 has attracted more than 1,400 people from the Exmouth, Lympstone and Budleigh Salterton areas. They object to the repeated use of storm overflows to discharge raw sewage into the sea, triggering bathing alerts and beach closures and preventing people from using the coast.Oliver Holland, who leads the claim, said the expansion of the legal action across Devon and Cornwall was an important step.“South West Water has a track record of very poor environmental performance, and my clients allege this has badly impacted their lives and livelihoods. By outlining my clients’ claims and expanding in this way, we are ensuring anyone who feels they have been impacted by sewage pollution in Dawlish, Sidmouth, Teignmouth, or at Longrock beach or Fistral beach in Cornwall, has the opportunity to take action.”South West Water has been contacted for comment.