press release
    24th June 2004

Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) will be at Truro Crown Court tomorrow morning to urge South West Water to drop their appeal against a £16,350 fine for a water pollution incident.

PHOTOCALL: On Thursday 24 th June at 9:30am outside Truro Crown Court, Edward Street an SAS campaigner will urge a ‘suited up water company official’ to take the fine ‘on the chin’ with the help of some ‘comedy boxing gloves’ and drop their appeal. Their appeal is due to be heard at 10am.

South West Water are appealing against a £16,350 fine dished out to them by Camborne magistrates in January following a discharge of poorly treated sewage effluent from the North Cliffs outfall last year.

That was the first court appearance of the year for the water company, who for the last two years has had the worst record amongst their industry for pollution incidents and failures to meet discharge consents.

The fine was a 400% increase on the average fine that the company received in 2003 and was celebrated by environmentalists as a sign that courts were getting tougher on repeat offenders when it came to pollution.

SAS called on South West Water not to appeal against the fine, but to ‘take it on the chin’. Customer’s money should be spent on improving the treatment works itself to prevent further incidents rather than pursuing any costly appeals, which may result in further fines.

SAS have long held the belief that fines for pollution incidents have been far too lenient. In the past fines have been little more than loose change for big multi million pound profit making machines like utility companies and have not been enough of incentive to improve overall performance.

Richard Hardy, SAS Campaigns Director says : “It’s a sign of the times that fines for pollution incidents are set to increase to ensure polluters learn from their mistakes. We urge South West Water to drop their appeal, pay the original fine and do more to prevent environmental crime. We also ask courts to remain steadfast in ensuring the polluter pays principle really does pay”.

Back