
Hundreds in Devon and Cornwall join paddle out sewage protests
'Stop this destruction'
SAS CEO Giles Bristow, who attended the protest in Falmouth, said the organisation was holding water companies to account. He said: "We want this ocean to be clean, we want to be able to swim and surf in places like this and just enjoy it without the risk of getting sick; and we want to stop this destruction of our beautiful and precious environment."We want people to enjoy it, we want people to go in informed and make sure they're safe, but, ultimately, we've got to clean up these, quite frankly, dirty waters."Yes, they're telling us they're investing. The question is can we trust them to do this. So we're all here, we're watching and we're holding them to account."
South West Water said it "fully respected" the rights of those who wish to protest peacefully. A spokesperson said: "We were one of only five companies in the industry to reduce spills compared to 2023. "Our focus has been to reduce spills at beaches in the bathing season by 20% in the last five years as we continue to focus on what our customers care about."We have also been focused on the highest-spilling sites from 2023 and have already removed three-quarters of the top 20 sites."There's more to do and we're committed to delivering real change for our customers as we spend record amounts to reduce our use of storm overflows."South West Water provides water and sewerage services to about 1.8 million customers in Devon and Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, plus small parts of Dorset and Somerset.
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