A Freedom of Information Request has revealed that Southwark has fined Thames Water over 600 times for overrunning projects in the past 5 years, equivalent to 2 a week, totaling over £1.5 Million.
Similar London-wide numbers hit national papers recently, and locally when Croydon was revealed to have issued the highest number of fines to Thames Water in London.
The Liberal Democrats in Parliament recently unveiled a plan to turn water companies into public benefit companies. This would ensure that regulators would be able to make the companies operate in the best interests of the public and nature, instead of issuing millions to shareholders whilst pumping raw sewage into rivers and letting infrastructure crumble.
This comes as Thames Water boss resigned over the sewage scandal earlier this summer, and the future of the company is in serious doubt due to mismanagement.
Locally, Bermondsey Cllr Rachel Bentley has been campaigning to clean up the River Thames, and has been active in working on how problems with water and sewage can be solved with sustainable urban drainage systems.
Commenting, Cllr Bentley said: “That Thames Water is so frequently overrunning projects in Southwark is yet more evidence of the total failure of the Conservative government to crack down on water companies that have done nothing but oversee the slow collapse of our vital infrastructure and pour sewage into our rivers and waterways.
Fines on their own will not fix the problem. In fact, they’re seen as a cost of doing business. Only the Liberal Democrats have a plan to hold these companies fully accountable and stop the pollution of our waterways.”
