CAMPAIGNERS will be gathering at Cornwall Council to deliver a statement of no confidence in South West Water and a call for the company to be taken back into public ownership.

Dowr Glan, whose name, means ‘Clean Water’ in Cornish, is attending County Hall ahead of the unitary authority voting whether to support its campaign on Tuesday, July 21.

Some 60 Cornish town and parish councils have voted to back the cross-party campaign after residents have seen local beaches and waterways polluted by sewage spills, which represents all the county’s major towns and well over half of its population.

Councillors, community leaders, residents and environmental groups will be gathering at County Hall ahead of the vote to share the impact of the sewage crisis on the region’s beaches, rivers, and wildlife. Campaigners will also deliver a letter that forms part of the motion to Leigh Frost, Leader of Cornwall Council. The same letter will also be delivered to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the chief executive of water regulator Ofwat, and to all six of Cornwall’s members of parliament.

Dowr Glan believe the motion is expected to pass with strong support. Campaigners say it will send the strongest possible message to Westminster that Cornwall will hold the new prime minister to his word following Andy Burnham having just taken office on a promise to bring public services back under public control.

Campaign organiser Mael Garrec, a Mebyon Kernow town councillor in Penryn and the town’s deputy mayor, said: “Cornwall has suffered from years of underinvestment in water and sewage infrastructure, with money from our water bills that should have been spent on this being creamed off as shareholder profit and fat-cat salaries and bonuses. The result is a never-ending slew of sewage spills that have impacted communities all across Cornwall.

“The aim of this campaign is very simple: to show that the people of Cornwall have had enough of South West Water and want to see this monopoly utility back in public hands and managed for the common good – for people and environment, not private profit.”

Dean Evans, the Green Party’s Cornwall councillor for Penryn, who is bringing the motion to Cornwall Council with Cllr Loveday Jenkin of Mebyon Kernow, Crowan and Wendron, said: “We know that there will be strong cross-party support for our motion on Tuesday. So many people in Cornwall have first-hand experience of sewage spills, not to mention steep rises in their water bills year after year. Bringing water back into public ownership is a policy that has broad support right across the political spectrum.

“As councillors, we are giving voice to the people in our communities, and the strength of their feeling on this could not be clearer.”

Cllr Loveday Jenkin said: “South West Water’s litany of failure has been obvious for years, and the company has been convicted of multiple criminal offences over both contaminated drinking water and illegal sewage discharges.

“Cornwall has more than enough of the public relations spin with which they seek to sweeten the smell of raw sewage. Quite simply, South West Water has lost its social licence to operate.

“Andy Burnham has promised to devolve power to regional level, and to bring public services back under public control. On Tuesday, the people of Cornwall will deliver a very clear message to Mr Burnham and his government: we expect these fine words to be backed up with real action, starting with the failed privatised water industry.”