Feargal Sharkey takes fight against sewage spills to Cornwall
Watch Feargal Sharkey talk to ITV News' Grace Pascoe about his concerns for the environment
Former pop star Feargal Sharkey wants sewage spills to stop and visited Falmouth as part of a national tour to raise awareness against the issue.
The activist and former Undertones frontman is now an environmental campaigner fighting for cleaner seas and rivers and addressed a crowd at Gyllyngvase Beach on Thursday 13 June.
The 65-year-old slammed South West Water’s record: “The local water company last year spent over 530,000 hours dumping sewage into local rivers and on to local beaches.
"It is an abhorrent failure of regulation and is an abhorrent act of corporate greed, financial engineering.
"It is an abhorrent breach and abuse of bill payers trust and our faith in the system.
“The chief executive locally got rewarded with a 58% pay rise. It is one of the worst environmental performance records in the whole industry and we are supposed to applaud and celebrate that.
"We should be on the beaches protesting it.”
In a statement in response South West Water said: "We care about our 860 miles of coastline, our region’s 100% bathing water quality, which we have successfully maintained for three consecutive years, and protecting the environment now and in the future.
"We were one of the first water companies to have all our storm overflows monitored meaning we know exactly what is happening, when and where, allowing us to target investment and make changes where it matters most.
"We are serious about tackling storm overflows and change of this scale takes time, ambition, and increased investment – and that is why we are investing £850m in our region over two years.
"The increase in the storm overflow spills this year can be accounted for by the amount of named storms and weather warnings in 2023. It’s clear we need to redesign our systems, which we are already doing.
"We will also be the first water company to meet the Government target of less than 10 spills per overflow, per year – a decade ahead of target.
"Chief Executive Susan Davy has voluntarily declined her bonus for the second year running. The separate long term award she has received relates to her work in 2021 and has been reinvested immediately into the company.”
Pennon’s annual report revealed South West Water’s chief executive Susan Davy’s total pay jumped to £860,000 in 2023-24 from £543,000 the previous year.
However, she has forgone an annual bonus which would have been worth £237,000 in cash and shares.
Ms Davy did pick up the long-term performance award, worth £298,000, which must be held for two years and reinvested in Pennon stock.