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Southern Water has been fined £7,127,083 at Canterbury Crown Court for a series of illegal sewage discharges from pumping stations at Margate and Broadstairs between 2019 and 2021 that led Thanet District Council to close beaches at the height of successive summers. The company pleaded guilty earlier this year to 13 offences under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016, and was sentenced by Mr Justice Johnson KC on 17 July. Costs to the Environment Agency of £149,000 and a victim surcharge of £181 were also imposed.
Five incidents across three summers
The prosecution centred on five major incidents. In July 2019, roughly 10 million litres of untreated sewage was released over almost a full day; Southern Water did not report the discharge to the Environment Agency until the following day, meaning the council could not warn bathers. Over the August bank holiday in 2020, two pump failures at Margate led to at least 16 million litres of sewage entering the sea across two days, and a simultaneous release at Broadstairs sent between 1.6 and 3.2 million litres of untreated wastewater into the sea over more than two hours. In February 2021, a failed computer and its failed backup at Broadstairs led to warnings against entering a five-kilometre stretch of coastline. In June 2021, simultaneous failures at both pumping stations closed 11 Thanet bathing waters for a week during the summer holidays. A further pumping station power failure at Broadstairs in October 2021 led to 10 more beach closures. The company also admitted to 35 further illegal discharges over the period, and to a pump used to move sewage around the network being out of action for more than a year. Thanet District Council’s director of environment, Michael Humber, said the discharges had been “particularly negatively impactful” on both the environment and the local economy, in which tourism accounts for around a fifth of employment.
Southern Water’s response
Southern Water said in a statement that it was “deeply sorry” for the incidents, which it described as taking place “more than five years ago” under previous leadership. The company said a new executive team and new shareholders had since made changes including 24-hour operational cover and hardening of sites against power outages, and pointed to £28 million invested in the Thanet wastewater and sewer network between 2020 and 2025.
Not the company’s first fine
The £7.1m sentence follows the record £90 million fine in 2021 for nearly 7,000 illegal discharges in Hampshire, Kent and Sussex. Further Environment Agency prosecutions of the company relating to Faversham, Whitstable and Hampshire are due to be sentenced later this year. Since 2015 the EA has concluded more than 70 prosecutions against water and sewerage companies, totalling more than £153 million in fines.
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