‘I am urging you to intervene now before it is too late’
Mike Martin MP for Tunbridge Wells for the Liberal Democrats: “Sack the board’ of South East Water” he urges ultimate owners of the company(Image: NK-Photography.co.uk)
Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin, whose constituency has been worst hit in the two latest water crises, has urged the owners of South East Water to “sack the board”. He has fired off a letter to the chairs of three companies – he describes as the “ultimate beneficial owners” of under-fire South East Water (SEW) – calling on them to “sack the leadership and bring in a turnaround team”.
The letter has been sent to: Rick Haythornwaite, of National Westminster Bank; Louis Babineau, of The Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec; and Andrew Fay, of Utilities of Australia Pty. And on social media platform X, Mr Martin also pushed the same message, to “sack the board”.
His letter yesterday (January 15) follows the news the Government is considering stripping SEW of its licence to operate. He said: “I am calling on you, the chairs of the ultimate beneficial owners of SEW, to sack its leadership and bring a turnaround team.”
And, in another part, he reiterated that, saying: “I am urging you to intervene now before it is too late. Sack SEW’s leadership. Bring in a turnaround team to save our water supply – and your own investment.”
He told them with the potential licence stripping, “you need to face the reality that this failing business is now not only a threat to your reputation – but also your bottom line”. Mr Martin said he was speaking on behalf of thousands of people across South East England who were enduring a winter without water because of the “incompetence of the leaders you have installed”.
He said the water company had, in recent weeks, brought life in the area “to a standstill”. Schools, health centres, nurseries and businesses have closed because they have had no water, he said.
SEW’s chief executive officer David Hinton had “behaved abominably throughout”, didn’t have a plan during the water outages, wouldn’t speak to the press, and had been accused by a senior MP of misleading Parliament, said Mr Martin. He added: “He refuses to step down, even though the leaders of the three major UK political parties, the chair of the relevant Select Committee, numerous local MPs and thousands of his customers are calling for him to go.”
He said he and other MPs had sought to raise their concerns about the chief executive with the Chair of the Board, but had been “ignored or dismissed”. Mr Martin also criticised the Chair, whose statement he described as “delusional” as it had blamed the regulator, the weather and customers working from home for the “total collapse of SEW’s network and its failure to respond to the crisis”.
This morning (January 16), SEW’s incident manager Mathew Dean said: “We are very sorry to every single one of our customers who have been affected. We know and understand how difficult going without water for such a long period of time is and how difficult it makes everyday life.”
KentLive has contacted SEW for comment.
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