11/06/2026
Excellent work by Becca and our community.
Now we will see if Southern Water are finally serious about investing what is necessary to rapidly end sewage explosions on our streets, toilets backflowing into homes and discharges into our waterways and seas.
Today I met with Lawrence Gosden, CEO of Southern Water, and put forward the serious concerns residents have raised across the West Wight.
I handed him your letters, comments and personal accounts so that your experiences were heard directly. Other councillors also spoke after me and raised the issues affecting their own communities.
Our petition has sent an incredibly strong message: residents want this issue taken seriously, and they expect action, transparency and proper solutions.
The meeting was constructive, and Lawrence Gosden listened. He has agreed to take away the demands raised and consider how Southern Water can respond with practical solutions.
In the meantime, we have also secured a public debate at Full Council, meaning this issue will now be discussed formally and publicly.
Thank you to everyone who signed, shared, wrote in, and helped make sure residents’ voices could not be ignored.
This is my Statement to Southern Water CEO Lawrence Gosden:
I am Becca Cameron, Councillor for Freshwater South and also representing Chris Jarman for Totland and Colwell.
I am here because the West Wight has lost confidence in Southern Water and has started a petition urging Isle of Wight Council to declare no confidence in Southern Water. The petition has reached a threshold meaning we have now met the level needed to push for a Full IOW Council debate.
What residents want is simple.
They want clean water.
They want to swim in the sea and protect our wildlife.
They want failing assets fixed.
They want investment brought forward, not pushed to 2035.
They want honest data.
And they want a clear commitment: no new connections to a failing sewer network unless the necessary upgrades are funded, scheduled and delivered first.
This is not just about a service failure. It is a public trust failure.
Colwell, Totland, Yarmouth, Freshwater Bay and the Western Yar are central to our community, our health, our tourism economy and our wildlife. These places are not optional extras. They are the heart of the West Wight.
This is not an isolated local complaint. Published sewage data ranks the Solent as the third most sewage-polluted receiving water in Southern Water’s 2025 data, with 847 incidents lasting 4,540 hours. Across Southern Water’s wider operating area, Surfers Against Sewage records more than 15,000 sewage discharges in 2025, lasting over 110,000 hours.
Research has also identified elevated levels of PFAS, or “forever chemicals”, across the Solent marine environment. Our combined sewer overflows feed into the same wider coastal system. There is clear evidence that the Solent is under serious sewage pollution pressure, and the Isle of Wight remains one of the worst-affected areas within that wider Solent picture.
Locally, the Colwell Bay and Totland Bay bathing area has been highlighted nationally by Surfers Against Sewage in their report as among the worst-affected locations in the UK with “318 hours dry-period sewage spills in 2025.” This should concern everyone. Sewage spilling when there has not been significant rainfall is a serious public health and environmental concern. If the system is spilling even in dry conditions, what does that say about the condition, capacity and management of the network?
The Western Yar is a protected environment. It includes nationally and internationally important habitats and forms part of the Isle of Wight UNESCO Biosphere. It should not be receiving sewage pollution. Yet locally reviewed 2024 figures show 266 recorded spills affecting the Western Yar catchment, with a combined recorded discharge duration of 48 days, 12 hours and 43 minutes.
Madeira Road CSO has repeatedly been linked to sewage alerts and beach closures. Freshwater Bay Pumping Station has been marked as under maintenance for over a year, with tankers used instead of a permanent fix. School Green Road spills into a riparian waterway, and residents have been told to wear protective clothing and clear polluted silt themselves.
That is not acceptable.
Southern Water often says the problem is too much rainwater entering the sewers. But that is not an answer. It is an admission that the system is not fit for purpose under the pressures it is already facing.
Residents are paying higher bills, but their problems are not getting fixed. We already have had the upgrades proposed and yet they have failed to yield results. Instead, we are being told not to swim. Beaches are being closed. Wildlife is being put at risk. Our livelihoods are at risk as well as the whole Island economy. Public confidence has collapsed.
So today I am asking for four commitments.
First, publish a clear asset-by-asset plan for West Wight storm overflows, pumping stations and sewer capacity problems, with dates, costs and funding status.
Second, bring investment forward now. Residents will not accept being told to wait until 2035 while spills continue.
Third, give residents a clear commitment that Southern Water will not support new connections until the necessary upgrades are funded, scheduled and delivered.
Fourth, provide transparent local data on spills, tankering, maintenance failures, pump failures, emergency releases, asset capacity and upgrade timescales.
Residents do not want another apology. They want action.
They do not want another glossy plan. They want failing assets fixed.
They do not want to be told the system is complicated. They already know it is failing.
The West Wight has lost confidence in Southern Water. The question now is whether you are prepared to earn it back through action, not words.
