Councillor calls for South East Water to be put into Special Administration
The leader of Canterbury City Council says the company need change.
The head of Canterbury City Council has sent a letter to Emma Reynolds, Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, calling for South East Water to be put into special administration.
It's after a week of uncertainty across Kent, as many in Whitstable, Ashford and the surrounding areas were left without regular access to water during the May heatwave.
Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio Kent about why he was demanding the change, Cllr Alan Baldock said:
"We've had constant issues over a very extended period of years of South East Water just not producing what they should be.
"And they've let our customers, or let our residents down, they've let our businesses down, they've let our farmers down.
"And I think above all of that, not only have they failed, but have also failed to make the changes they need to step up building their infrastructure, or even step up dealing with the crisis that they've created themselves."
He added:
"I think we've come to the point where we need to call for the government to enact a special administration for South East Water.
"That would be a special administration that we feel should be based on a recovery, rather than taking over the company completely as a nationalised industry.
"It's their failures that need to be repaired and we should be putting somebody in from the government to manage that company and bring it round and get these repairs and infrastructure done quickly. And really up the game on dealing with the issues that they've created for their customers and our residents."
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A Government spokesperson said:
"The Secretary of State welcomed the resignation of South East Water's CEO. This must mark the beginning of positive change at South East Water, where customers’ needs are prioritised and there is a stop to supply outages.
"Our once-in-a-generation reform of the water sector will continue to drive improvements across the industry more widely.”