Dear Wessex Water / Bristol Water
After further consideration, I have decided again that I will not pay the sewerage charge part of my water bill. Therefore, on 3rd October I paid £161.95 for the incoming water services and I am withholding the amount of £132.96 for the sewerage charge. This is in addition to the £132.95 withheld in April and I have previously written to you complaining of your poor performance.
Recent media coverage and OFWAT data confirms that your company is still behaving recklessly and ruinously to our environment by persistently releasing untreated sewage into our waterways, including on dry days.
I am writing now with a formal complaint. I would note that while my complaint is outstanding, you should not pursue me for payment in any way. Please put my account on hold while my complaint is outstanding.
My complaint concerns your company’s grievous dereliction of duty and your legal and moral responsibility not to pollute our precious rivers and oceans. Enabling you to continue this seems now to me to be an ethical question: I cannot continue paying for a service that is simply not being provided, that is, the responsible disposal of the wastewater from my property. Furthermore, paying this section of my water bill supports the harmful and repeated practice of sewage dumping.
In a preliminary investigation, the Environment Agency recorded “widespread and serious non-compliance with regulations” and launched a two-year criminal investigation. Last July, the head of the agency suggested repeat offenders should face jail.
In “Money Down the Drain, Raw Sewage on the Beach,” published by Fideres last November, Chris Pine wrote: “We estimate that households purchasing UK wastewater services may have incurred damages since 2016 of approximately £163 million as a result of the water companies potentially abusing their dominant position.
“We also estimate that the same companies may have charged households more than £1.1 billion for sewage removal services, when in fact they have not safely removed that sewage; instead, they may have simply discharged it into the country’s rivers and onto its beaches.”
Please note that I have made my position known publicly and intend to take this complaint to the Consumer Council of Water (CCW) if your response to my complaint is unsatisfactory.
Yours sincerely,
Caroline Dennett
Customer Number: 228xxxx
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