Friends of the Dart and Co-Signers Call for Stronger Environmental Protections

Friends of the Dart, together with Ambios Ltd, Buckfastleigh Action for Nature, and Holybrook Meadows CIC, have submitted a formal response to Ofwat’s consultation on proposed Section 19 undertakings from South West Water Services Limited (SWW).

The joint response welcomes the enforcement action in principle but raises serious concerns that the proposed measures fall short of addressing the scale and severity of environmental damage to the River Dart and its tributaries. Among the issues raised are the adequacy of the investment relative to harm caused, the absence of independent monitoring mechanisms, and the lack of robust transparency to enable community accountability.

The submission includes detailed recommendations, including:

• Formal roles for local river groups in compliance monitoring

• Mandatory real-time publication of sewage spill and flow data

• Automatic penalties for non-compliance with transparency or investment timelines

• Prioritisation of protections for designated and publicly used bathing water sites

• Oversight of local and nature recovery funds by independent, regionally grounded bodies

Hannah Pearson, Director of Friends of the Dart, stated:

“The people of Devon and Cornwall have lost trust in SWW. They deserve nothing less than complete transparency and accountability from SWW. These undertakings represent an opportunity to establish a new standard of environmental responsibility, but only if they are strengthened with the robust transparency and community engagement mechanisms we have outlined.

We urge Ofwat to use its powers to ensure these undertakings deliver genuine environmental improvement rather than merely representing a financial settlement that allows business as usual to continue.”

The full response is available here.