A week after precautionary checks for contamination in the water supply in Beckenham and Penge, the failing privatised utility company is forced to issue bottled supplies to residents in a village in the Surrey constituency of Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt
Water warning: around 600 households in Surrey have been told not to drink their tap water
On the day that the multi-billion-pound pollution business issued a warning to households in Surrey not to drink their tap water, news emerges that Thames Water is the latest of six companies to face a legal claim that it misled regulators over discharges of untreated sewage it made into rivers, lakes, coastal areas and other waterways, causing damage to the environment.
Thames Water is estimated to be facing a compensation bill to customers of at least £159million if it loses the case. Across the country, water companies may be forced to pay £800million for over-charging if the group action is successful.
Anyone who has paid a water bill from Thames Water since April 2020 may be entitled to compensation if the legal case is successful.
The Thames Water case is being jointly managed with the other five claims already issued by Professor Carolyn Roberts against Severn Trent Water, Northumbrian Water, United Utilities, Anglian Water and Yorkshire Water. All six Collective Proceedings Orders applications will be heard together by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
Prof Roberts is a renowned water resource management specialist, whose work specialises in minimising the impacts of development activities and protecting the environment.
The latest drinking water warning was issued yesterday to more than 600 households in Bramley, Surrey, telling residents not to drink their tap water following tests carried out by Thames Water. Results indicated “a possible deterioration in quality” of drinking water “in some areas”.
A total of 616 houses in and around the village of Bramley have been given the “precautionary” instruction not to use their water supply for drinking, cooking or brushing their teeth – although they can continue to use it to shower and washing hands.
The alert follows a historical fuel leak from an Asda petrol station in the village. Bramley is part of the South West Surrey constituency that Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt represented until parliament was dissolved yesterday.
Complaints from local people about the fuel leak date back to 2021, and Hunt said it posed a risk to the broadband and telephone services, as BT’s ductwork passes the site.
Tess Fayers, Thames Water’s operations director, said: “We are asking 616 Bramley properties not to drink the tap water following recent water sampling results. The health and safety of our customers is our number one priority, and we would like to reassure residents that this is a precautionary measure.”
The legal case being brought by Prof Roberts together with legal firm Leigh Day could yet have far-reaching, and expensive consequences. The case against the company is being brought on behalf of more than 11million household customers.
Class action: Prof Carolyn Roberts
The legal action claims that Thames Water and five other water companies have each abused their dominant market position and overcharged consumers as a result.
The number of pollution incidents a company reports to the Environment Agency and Ofwat is a key factor in determining the price the company can charge its customers for the provision of sewerage services. The claims argue that customers have been overcharged as a result of the companies’ underreporting.
“Combined, the claims are expected to lead to compensation payments for millions of customers worth over £800 million, if successful,” a spokesperson for solicitors Leigh Day told Inside Croydon.
“There is growing anger about the state in which sewage discharges leave our rivers and beaches,” Professor Roberts said.
“The latest Environment Agency data shows that for 2023, water companies have doubled their sewage discharges. This is despite Ofwat’s and the Environment Agency parallel investigation into sewage treatment works.
Murky business: south London’s precious chalk stream the River Wandle has been hit by repeated pollution incidents caused by Thames Water
“I hope the legal claims I am bringing on behalf of millions of customers, which now include Thames Water customers, play a part in bringing desperately needed change in the water industry.”
Prof Roberts said that although water companies have a legal duty to report pollution incidents accurately, “it appears many such incidents go unreported”.
She said: “If these companies had correctly reported the number of pollution incidents, Ofwat would have applied performance penalties, reducing how much these companies could charge their customers. Instead, customers have been, and continue to be, overcharged, and England’s waterways continue to be polluted.
“It is imperative that the millions of bill-payers impacted by the water companies’ sewage pollution and alleged overcharging are properly compensated.”
The next major step is a five-day joint CPO hearing starting on Monday September 23. Customers will automatically be included in the claim against their water company unless they specifically choose to opt-out. Customers will only need to come forward at the compensation stage if the claims are successful.
Anyone with an interest in the claims, including potential class members, can object to the CPO Applications or the authorisation of Professor Roberts as the Class Representative.
Anyone wishing to file an objection must write to the Tribunal stating your reasons for objecting. You may also apply to make written or oral submissions at the CPO Hearing. The deadline is 4pm on July 11.
More information about the claims can be found at www.mywatercase.co.uk.
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
At last some rebalancing for deceit and potentially fraudulent reporting in order to manipulate bills higher. It seems there is some recourse I wish the Professor Roberts well.
On a side note I noticed in a local area a huge number of blocked road water drains, a Thames Water responsibility, which because the drain was blocked up until the road surface caused the rainwater to erode the bitumen on the road surface that holds the hard surface stones in place. Thus causing damage to the property of the local authority who then have to resurface the road far sooner than would normally be the case of its expected lifetime.
I expect this issue is far and wide of failed and delayed clearing by the Water companys and from direct personal experience and sight is including at a minimum the Local Councils of Croydon, Wandsworth, Fulham.. . . . .
Would the Environment Agency, OFWAT and Professor Roberts and the Local Authorities also add those compensatory claims to refund the hard pressed Councils budgets.
Part of Danebury Avenue in Roehampton was recently resurfaced at the local authorities expense due to erosion by surface water, whilst at a minimum 6 of the roadside drain grids had plants growing from the solid soil in the grids. During heavy rain the drain covers in the centre of the road were suspended floating 4 inches above the road by the powerful jet of fountain coming from the main sewer pipe below. The water then running down the road surface like a small river at a depth of circa 4 inches.
The bell tolls . . . .
We need to dredge the rivers, all of them. When we stopped, we had flooding which is getting worse, now affecting water courses and water management. Wake up, dredge the rivers and rebuild the many sewerage farms we lost to private development in building new rabbit hatch houses. Simple steps even an idiot would understand.
Bollocks. Dredging rivers makes the flooding go faster to the places downstream. We need to slow the flow, not speed it up