Court protest in support of water bills boycotter

The founders of the Boycott Water Bills movement are holding a protest in Margate on Thursday 19 March. It comes ahead of long-time boycotter Julie Wassmer’s showdown with Southern Water.

Kent-based author and environmental campaigner Wassmer faces imminent court action for her four year payment boycott of Southern Water bills. She has maintained this in protest at the company’s unacceptable sewage pollution record.

Wassmer, a co-founder of award-winning campaign group Boycott Water Bills, said:

Southern Water is a criminal company – a serious serial offender regarding sewage pollution and I aim to highlight how UK water companies are evading responsibility for poor service via a selective use of the Water Industry Act 1991.

Fellow Boycott Water Bills co-founder Katy Colley says the website has seen a flood of new sign-ups following the screening of the Channel 4 drama Dirty Business.

The three-part series exposes the collusion between water companies and regulators at the heart of the current sewage crisis.

Colley, from Hastings, said:

Every day people from all over the country are getting in touch to say they will join the boycott.

We should be pursing the criminal polluters who poison our waters with impunity instead of weaponising the law against a few brave individuals in the interests of big business.

Wassmer will be joined by Kent and Sussex boycotters and Green councillors, as well as local clean water campaign groups.

Mark Hood, Green group leader on Kent county council, said:

We fully support Julie Wassmer who has bravely stood up to the water companies whose monopoly has been a disaster for Kent and our environment and who have consistently put profit before tackling pollution.

Nonpayment isn’t a course of action which people take lightly but when Julie became aware of Southern Water’s record of sewage pollution to the beaches and seas she loves, she decided that she had no other choice.

The water industry needs to be returned to public ownership so that every penny of profit can be used to improve infrastructure instead of paying shareholders.

Featured image via the Canary