Hastings council to ask Southern Water for compensation following major flooding incidents

The town centre suffered extensive flooding in January and less than a month later in February, a major sewage leak occurred in Bulverhythe.

A report by Victoria Conheady, the council’s deputy chief executive, makes a list of recommendations, which will be discussed by the authority’s cabinet committee on October 2.

Recommendations include Southern Water being asked to ‘financially compensate the council for the infrastructure failures which have had a significant impact on the reputation of Hastings as a tourist destination’ and for the company to ‘publish detailed plans for all current infrastructure investment taking place in Hastings’.

In the report by the council’s deputy chief executive, it said: “There have been a number of recent incidents involving Southern Water over the past two years or so. The first was a catastrophic failure of a main sewage pipe at West Marina, to the west of Cinque Ports Way and in the centre of the West of Haven beach huts, in late July 2021.

“This resulted in two prolonged discharges of raw sewage onto the beach in the area within 48 hours, and attracted much media attention and very considerable public and visitor reaction.

“At the time Southern Water said that this had never happened before, but subsequently acknowledged that there was a problem with this part of the network, and several more bursts have been reported since, with varying degrees of impact. Southern Water have spent some time developing plans to replace this pipe. Southern Water are currently predicting that all work on the sewer should be completed by May 2024.

“Very serious flooding took place in Hastings town centre on January 16, 2023, which closed the whole of Priory Meadow shopping centre for several days, causing very extensive damage. HMV only reopened its store in August 2023, and some retailers have not reopened, their stores remaining empty. There was also extensive flooding to Alexandra Park, and South Terrace, the latter leading to the emergency evacuation and temporary rehousing of a number of households.

“In February 2023 there was a further failure of the sewer at Bulverhythe Road. The failed pipe was not the same pipe as the 2021 burst, but was part of the same network, approximately 150m north. The flooding affected homes and commercial premises, led to contamination of the Combe river and caused a collapse of the river bank and subsidence of the highway and pavement.

“A repair was promptly carried out to the failed pipe, with further works planned to line the network from autumn 2023 to spring 2024. However, the highway adjacent to the failed river bank remains closed to one lane, and no date has been provided by Southern Water for the major repairs needed to be undertaken.

“Significant pollution in Old Roar Gill was noted on May 14, 2023 and this was significant, although it was confined almost entirely to the gill and catch ponds, with little recorded impact below Buckshole Reservoir. Southern Water undertook considerable investigations over several weeks and uncovered several problems that they had not been aware of previously. This included five foul sewer leaks, at least three damaged areas of domestic sewer, three misconnections and at least five unmapped sewers identified.

“There can be no doubt at all that Hastings has suffered a disproportionate amount of disruption, and damage, from its water assets over the past two years or so. Our concern is that these will continue; the town centre flooding last January had a huge impact on the town’s retail economy, and continued bad press on sewage leaks and poor water quality is impacting our reputation and, in turn, the visitor economy.

Southern Water has been approached for comment.