Southern Water Stakeholder Group

Wealden District Council co-ordinates the Southern Water Local Authority Stakeholder Group which includes representatives from more than 20 councils across the south east, spanning from Folkestone & Hythe to the New Forest.  Its main objective is to act as a platform for local authorities to come together across political party lines, to hold Southern Water (and their regulators) to account for the poor quality of our waterways and coastline. 

It was set up in the aftermath of a catalogue of issues including flooding, sewage seeping into people’s homes, gardens and roads, the ongoing problem of discharges into rivers and waterways and the inability to deal with additional development.

It also follows the July 2022 Full Council motion by Wealden District Council to demand better quality information from Southern Water when it considered planning matters.

Various meetings have taken place since the Group’s inception (some of which have included special speakers from Southern Water, the Environment Agency and most recently OFWAT) which have all been well received and continue to be ongoing. 

As an aside to this Group, we also have a smaller Working Group with one or two representatives from each County area who also meet regularly to work together to form a set of priorities/strategy, which are then reported back to the main Stakeholder Group. 

This page displays the minutes from both these meetings, relevant press releases and letters to/from Government.