‘Outrage’ over SWW chief’s potential payout

A leading Devon councillor has welcomed the retirement of South West Water’s chief executive Susan Davy, saying it would be an ‘outrage’ to pay her any kind of golden handshake.

Ms Davy announced earlier this month that she was stepping down after serving as CEO for five years, a tenure which has coincided with a number of serious issues for the water company.
Last year a cryptosporidium outbreak in Kingswear and Brixham left thousands of homes without drinkable water and more than 100 people saying they were ill. Earlier this year thousands of residents in the north of Plymouth were left without water for several days.
Just last month parent company Pennon announced it had made a £72.7m loss and then water watchdog Ofwat told South West Water to make £24m of improvements after sewage failings.
The watchdog said the company did not have adequate management systems to ensure it was meeting its legal obligations, and spilled waste water into the environment when it should not have done.
Ms Davy, who apologised unreservedly and said she suffered sleepless nights over the cryptosporidium incident, received a pay package of more than £800,000 for the latest financial year.
Speaking during a meeting of South Hams Council’s executive committee, Cllr Julian Brazil (Lib Dem, Stokenham) said: “I welcome the fact that the chief executive is going, and if they try to pay her some kind of redundancy, that’s an outrage.”
As well as serving as a South Hams councillor, Cllr Brazil is also the leader of Devon County Council.
He told the South Hams meeting: “They should be giving the money to people like us who are trying to do what they should have been doing, but haven’t.”
He was speaking as councillors backed a pioneering project to collect their own information on water quality and share it with the public, rather than relying on results collated by other bodies.
Sensors could be placed in local waters next month, with funding from the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Cllr Simon Rake (Lib Dem, Blackawton and Stoke Fleming) said: “It’s a fantastic project.
“It will allow us to get a much better understanding of how the water quality changes in our rivers.”