Wessex Water has been banned by the government from giving one of its top bosses a bonus after criminal sewage spills in and near Somerset killed thousands of fish.
Photo © Wessex Water
Under new rules from water regulator Ofwat, water companies can no longer pay their bosses bonuses if they have failed to meet key standards or are convicted of a criminal offence.
It means Bath-based Wessex Water, which has awarded top bosses £4.246 million in bonuses over the last ten years, is now banned from paying a bonus to its chief financial officer (CFO.)
The water company was fined half a million pounds in November 2024 after it pleaded guilty to causing untreated sewage to discharge into a marsh rhyne in Wick St Lawrence on the edge of Weston-super-Mare, and for sewage spills near Melksham just across the Wiltshire border in 2018.
Six water companies have been banned from paying their top bosses bonuses, although Wessex Water is the only one banned due to a criminal conviction.
Environment secretary Steve Reed said: “Water company bosses, like anyone else, should only get bonuses if they’ve performed well, certainly not if they’ve failed to tackle water pollution.
“Undeserved bonuses will now be banned as part of the Government’s plan to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.”
Under the rules, which came into force on Friday 6th June under the Water (Special Measures) Act, Wessex Water’s CEO is exempt from the ban as she was not in post at the time of the incidents. But the company said it had already decided to award neither her nor the CFO bonuses.
Spined stickleback and eels were killed in Wick St Lawrence after a pressurised sewage pipe burst. It had been identified by Wessex Water as a critical main that needed monitoring, but no monitoring was put in place until after the incident.
In the Melksham incident, a mechanical failure meant sewage was discharged into Clackers Brook, which flows into the Avon, for 54.5 hours.
Sewage flowing through a nature conservation area killed almost all of the fish within a kilometre. The more than 2,100 fish killed including threatened eels, lamprey and bullheads.
The company did not report it to the Environment Agency immediately, and an investigation discovered there had been other discharges that year which were not reported.
A spokesperson for Wessex Water said: “In 2018 when the two pollution incidents occurred, and in recognition of their seriousness, the then managing director received no environmental bonus.
“Similarly, in 2024 the CEO received no bonus following the conclusion of the prosecution related to those incidents.
“This year, and irrespective of the government’s new rules, our independent remuneration committee has already confirmed that neither our new CEO or CFO will receive any bonus.
“This decision reflects our own rules which require the achievement of specific customer and environmental performance targets.
“Once the issues from seven years ago were identified, we acted swiftly to minimise environmental harm and carried out emergency repairs. Since then, we have invested in AI technology to detect where potential issues on our network might occur to further protect the environment.
“Looking ahead, we are planning a step change in the maintenance of our sewerage infrastructure, with a proposed investment of approximately £300 million by 2030.”
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
