Hundreds of Island residents are expected to turn out to a public meeting in Seaview this evening (Tuesday) to demand answers from Southern Water about the future safety of our beaches and swimming waters.
The water company recently accepted the invitation to meet from Councillor David Adams and has agreed to send senior management and engineers to face questions from members of the public.
This follows a long campaign in Nettlestone and Seaview, led by Raymond Simonds, with support from many villagers – which reflects similar sentiment across the Island about the state of our beaches and swimming waters.
Raymond and others had noticed raw sewage flowing from outfall pipes directly onto the beach in Seaview after significant rainfall – and alerted Southern Water to the problem.
In February 2022 the company agreed to repair the main pipe that lies just east of the Old Fort Pub with a date set for late April. It now seems that work has been delayed – just one thing that local people will be asking the utility company about tonight.
Questions are expected on a wide range of sewage-related topics including timing on upgrading our existing sewage infrastructure; the need for more monitoring stations; concerns over safety for swimmers and asking for more specific information on the future of sewage removal in Seaview and across the Island.
The meeting is to be held at Sea View Yacht Club at 18:00 this evening (Tuesday 19th April).
Campaigner Raymond Simmonds says:
“We’ve run a tightly-focussed campaign with one simple objective and many villagers have contributed to our pressure group by writing to Southern Water, local politicians and the media. Now our combined efforts have now paid off.”
“This meeting is about making our beaches and swimming waters safe for everyone to enjoy and it is good progress that Southern Water has agreed to come and hear the depth of feeling, and hopefully get their mess cleared up.”
Councillor David Adams adds:
“This is a valuable and welcome opportunity for the local community to meet directly with representatives of the organisation entrusted with safeguarding one of our most precious resources: our water.”
“As a coastal community, with an ageing, underinvested infrastructure, it is vital we as customers continue to engage with Southern Water and hold them to account, so I encourage everyone to join us at the meeting on Tuesday to demonstrate the strong affinity with protecting our environment that I know exists”
I live in Sandown, is this meeting only restricted to the residents of seaview and Ryde etc. ?
Also, what is the dress code ?
And will it be, for the general public (the great unwashed), or only for the posh yaught’ys
And have they got a bar ?
And are you expected to purchase a raffle ticket from the rotary club ?
AND WHY IS THIS PUBLIC MEETING BEING HELD IN A F’N YAUGHT CLUB.
Why not somewhere, such as Oakfield FC. ?
(No offense Oakfield, but at least you are real people).
I had better, start to get dressed now.
Ps. Can you bring your own ?
It doesn’t matter where the meeting is or what you wear anything said will fall on deaf ears ! If you want improvements they need to employ an island management that care !! You won’t get results from any of the Isle of Wight managers ! To improve there needs to be a team at the top with the drive to improve and that doesn’t exist in the management team here !
Can we give the same message to Wight fibre?!!