Woman taken to court after refusing to pay Wessex Water bills over sewage spills

A Wessex Water customer refusing to pay her bills in protest of sewage pollution will face the company in court as it seeks to claim on her outstanding charges.

Caz Dennett, 53, of Weymouth, Dorset, has not paid her wastewater payments since April 2023.

In August, Ms Dennet told The i Paper she had received a claim form from the Civil National Business Centre, which deals with small claims court cases, informing her that Wessex Water would be taking her to court.

She has now received a letter ordering her to appear at Weymouth County Court on 10 February over her non-payment – but intends to challenge Wessex Water’s claim.

Ms Dennett has been asked to pay Wessex Water nearly £850, including outstanding charges and legal fees the company will have to pay to recover her debt.

“The crux of my case is that I am being charged for a service that I am not receiving, because they should not only collect, but also treat sewage from my property,” Ms Dennett said.

“Why is it so important to me? Because I am a deep nature lover. I love looking at birds, I love marine wildlife, all of it.

“To know that that sewage is being repeatedly discharged into Radipole Lake, an RSPB nature reserve, into our harbour, really sensitive wildlife areas, it’s got to stop.

“It just has to stop. We’ve got to use whatever tools we have to make a point about that.”

Wessex Water said it understands that storm overflows are an issue for customers and it is happy to discuss its solutions with them – as it claims it has done with Ms Dennett in the past.

The company also pledged to invest £3m every month on schemes to reduce discharges from storm overflows.

Environment Agency data shows that Wessex Water dumped sewage into waterways from storm overflows 41,453 times in 2023 for a total of 372,341 hours – nearly three-fold increase when compared to 2022.

While the company’s chief executive, Colin Skellett, received a bonus of £120,000 in 2022/23, he decided to forego any bonus in 2023/24 amid growing criticism over pollution.

Wastewater companies are permitted to discharge untreated sewage into waterways to prevent their infrastructure from becoming overwhelmed, but they are only allowed to do so during exceptional periods of heavy rainfall.

In November, Wessex Water was fined £500,000 after sewage leaks from its infrastructure in Wiltshire and Somerset killed thousands of fish and was accused of failing to report the incidents to the Environment Agency as early as it should have.

A Wessex Water spokesperson said: “We understand storm overflows are an issue for customers and we’re always happy to discuss our solutions and where we are investing with them, which we have already done with Ms Dennett.

“We’re currently spending £3m every month on schemes to reduce discharges from storm overflows, with plans to almost triple this investment from April 2025.”

This comes as The i Paper revealed, plans to clean up rivers across England have been put on hold due to delays in funding from millions of pounds of sewage fines.

Jenny Suggate, director of policy, research and campaigns at the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), told The i Paper: “We’re aware some customers have decided to boycott paying part or all of their water and sewerage bill in protest at their water company’s environmental performance.

“We completely understand people’s anger and upset on this issue and our own research shows that just a third of households are satisfied with water companies’ efforts to protect the environment. However, our advice to people who approach us with a complaint regarding this matter is to continue paying their charges.

“Customers who are considering boycotting payment should understand they could face debt recovery action from their water company.

“This could negatively impact their credit rating and also potentially result in additional costs being added to their bill. If someone has chosen to boycott payment, there is no requirement for a water company to suspend or delay debt recovery action just because the customer has raised a dispute with their supplier or the CCW.”