March 16th, 2026.



Green party councillors have pressed the chief executive of Southern Water on flooding and bathing water quality in a specially-arranged face-to-face meeting.

Lewes District Green councillors Paul Keene, Sue Morris and Emily O'Brien met with Southern Water’s Lawrence Gosden and senior members of his team to address matters of direct consequence to public health, environmental quality, and the daily lives of residents across Lewes district.

They discussed in detail the aftermath of blackwater flooding in Valence Road, Lewes; bathing water quality at Barcombe, and at Seaford and Newhaven beaches; persistent flooding and drainage failures across Wivelsfield, North Chailey, Barcombe, Peacehaven and the Nevill area of Lewes, and Denton; and the outstanding connection at Mill Road in Ringmer.

Councillors, who have pressed for the meeting with water bosses for some time, challenged the company on its spending priorities, asking whether resources were being directed towards shareholder dividends and executive remuneration at the expense of the infrastructure investment that residents so plainly need.

Councillors urged the company's management team to provide the results of a pollution incident reduction programme, which had been promised by Southern Water in October 2023, and asked whether sewage discharge incidents have decreased or whether the increases observed since 2024 have continued.

They also raised concerns over Southern Water’s repeated failure to share place-based investment plans with local authorities, data it has promised to Government it would provide. Nearly twelve months into the current Asset Management Period, councillors asked not for broad five-year ambitions but for year-by-year breakdowns of what is planned, where, and when.

Councillors also raised the persistent problem of neutral responses from Southern Water to planning consultations, which in practice allow unsustainable developments to proceed unchallenged. They pressed for information on infrastructure upgrades that would allow the council to apply Grampian conditions to planning permissions, which delay developments until certain conditions have been met.

Southern Water confirmed that its new sewer network contractor, the Lanes Group, is now in place, covering blockage investigation, sewer cleaning, camera surveys, patch lining, and tankering.

Councillor Paul Keene said: “This was a thorough and, at times, frank meeting. We put to Mr Gosden the questions that residents have every right to expect answered. The pattern is too familiar: assurances are given, action is promised, yet the overflows continue, the infrastructure crumbles, and the data we need to hold the company to account is withheld."

Councillor Sue Morris said: “Flooding, drainage failures, tankers on residential streets—these are not minor inconveniences. They affect health, wellbeing, and the ability of people to live safely in their own homes. Southern Water must bring forward its investment timelines, engage properly with local authorities, and demonstrate that it grasps the scale of what is required.”

Councillor Emily O’Brien said: “Residents deserve a water company that treats their concerns with urgency, not vague promises. The planning process, in particular, cannot continue to operate in a vacuum. When Southern Water returns empty responses to consultations, it is local communities who bear the consequences in developments that the infrastructure cannot support.”


Pictured: Left to right: Councillor Paul Keene, Councillor Sue Morris, Councillor Emily O'Brien, and Southern Water chief executive, Lawrence Gosden.