Southern Water Legal Action: Folkestone & Hythe District Council Escalate Sewage Pollution Fight

Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Southern Water and the Environment Agency faced residents and campaigners in the same room on Thursday 19 February, to discuss sewage pollution, bathing water quality and what happens next along the coast from Dungeness to Folkestone. It was a public meeting, and it felt like one: less “stakeholder engagement”, more “tell us why the sea turns into shit when it rains”.

The key intervention came from the chair. Cllr Jim Martin – pictured – made it clear that Folkestone & Hythe District Council, alongside other councils along the south-east coast, has begun legal action against Southern Water. He didn’t give details — no claim outline, no timetable, no explanation of whether this is pre-action or already in court. But the signal mattered: this is no longer just complaints, meetings and solemn nodding. It’s lawyers.

That does not mean Folkestone has suddenly become the Manchester Ship Canal. The Supreme Court case was about a privately owned watercourse — a canal — and whether its owner could sue a water company – United Utilities – for pollution entering its property. A coastal bathing beach is a different factual world, with a different mix of rights, regulators and evidence. But the principle the Supreme Court re-asserted is a big deal: the Water Industry Act 1991 does not, by itself, wipe out common-law claims in nuisance or trespass where foul water discharges pollute someone’s property, even if there’s no negligence or deliberate misconduct. The “it’s just overcapacity” excuse is not a universal shield.

If that sounds abstract, look at how quickly it’s being used. Leigh Day’s press release on wild swimmer Jo Bateman’s claim against South West Water describes a straightforward “loss of amenity” claim after she said she couldn’t swim at Exmouth for 10 consecutive days following an incident involving untreated sewage. After the Supreme Court ruling, the same press release says she was allowed to amend the claim to reflect the widened legal basis, alleging repeated discharges and loss of swimming for “over 300 days” across five years. In other words: once the Supreme Court reopened the door, people immediately started walking through it.

So, back in Folkestone & Hythe, Cllr Martin’s remark about legal action landed in a changed landscape. The meeting was about what happens next on our coastline. The Manchester case was about a canal owner’s property rights. But together they point to the same uncomfortable truth for water companies: the argument is no longer confined to regulators, press statements and “engagement”. Courts are in play again, and the public is no longer willing to be told that repeated sewage pollution is just one of those things.

The question now is brutally simple. If councils have started legal action, when will residents be told what it is, what it seeks, and how it will force change? Because sea swimmers and businesses along our coastline can’t run on reassurance. And nobody should need a law degree to understand the basic demand: stop putting shit in the water Southern Water.

The Shepway Vox Team

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