‘No confidence’ motion in Wessex Water is thrown out before voting

A proposed “no confidence motion” in Wessex Water has been thrown out before councillors could vote on it.

The Guildhall in Bath

Green councillors in Bath and North East Somerset had tabled a motion to declare there was “no confidence” in the water company due to its spilling of untreated sewage.

Councillors were due to vote on it at a full council meeting on 17th September but were instead told that it had been ruled out by chair of the council Councillor Shaun Stephenson-McGall (Timsbury, Liberal Democrat) for breaching the council’s “six-month rule”.

The night before the meeting, Councillor Stephenson-McGall had attended a 20th anniversary event at Bath’s Thermae Spa as chair of the council.

It was hosted by Colin Skellett, the former CEO of Wessex Water and the group chief executive of YTL UK, which owns the water company.

The Liberal Democrats said the decision to exclude the motion had been made days before on the advice of the council’s monitoring officer. Asked if it was connected to the event, a Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “That is absolutely not the case.”

The council’s “six-month rule” prevents the council from voting on the same issue twice within six months.

The Green motion was judged to be too similar to a Liberal Democrat motion in July which saw the council adopt a charter to recognise the “rights” of the River Avon.

That motion focussed more on the council’s own actions around the River Avon, while the Green motion focussed more on calling on the government to nationalise water companies. Both motions called for Wessex Water bosses to be made to meet with the council.

Green group leader Joanna Wright (Lambridge) said: “We went through due process. We were told it was fine. It was put on the agenda.

“Then suddenly we got an email … that it had broken the six-month rule.” She said that the late decision meant that they were unable to propose another motion for the council to vote on, and that she had not been offered an apology.

Councillor Wright raised complaints about the monitoring officer’s decision at several points in the meeting but was told not to raise concerns about individual officers.

A small protest in support of the Green motion took place outside the meeting. Addressing the council as a public speaker, supporter Benazir Jatoi said she was disappointed the no confidence vote was not going ahead and called it “a failure of the senior executive team to manage the agenda process”.

She said: “Despite this, I am keen on addressing the issue of water, particularly after hearing that Wessex Water recently approved an £80k pay rise for their CEO.

“This has taken place all the while the Environment Agency’s 2025 figures show over 190,000 hours of sewage discharge in local waterways where Wessex is responsible.”

Storm overflows discharge rainwater and untreated sewage directly into rivers and seas, nominally to prevent pipes backing up during extreme demand.  Wessex Water is responsible for treating sewage across Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset, and the Bristol area, and for supplying water to most of that area too.

The motion which was pulled would have stated: “The sewage crisis continues to be a national scandal. Successive governments have failed to take any meaningful action to stop it and have allowed it to get worse.”

Cornwall Council passed a no confidence motion in South West Water in July over its “grave failure” to manage the county’s sewers. About 60 of Cornwall’s town and parish councils supported the cross-party Dowr Glan campaign, Cornish for “clean water”.

Sewage was discharged directly at some of the most popular Cornish beaches by South West Water.

A statement on Wessex Water’s website about storm overflows states: “Storm overflows have always been part of the sewerage network in the UK and while they have little impact on water quality, they are clearly not appropriate for the 21st century.

“To eliminate all overflows immediately would bring huge disruption to our communities as well as a significant increase in water bills, forcing us to dig up huge numbers of roads at once and costing hundreds of millions of pounds.

“That’s why we’ve committed to eliminating harm from the discharge of untreated sewage, targeting storm overflows that discharge most frequently and those that have any environmental impact.

“Over the next five years, we’re spending £8.5 million a month on overflow improvement schemes.”

John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter