Speeches by Kirkham.

“Do you think that your four-star environmental rating might be at risk? If these incidents are not being correctly reported or monitored by the EA, does that not mean that, if this level of mistakes is happening, the four-star rating is not right? Is it wrong?”

“Did they get it wrong 60 times? Did they not realise that it was as serious as it should have been? Is that what you are saying—that you reported and they made a mistake?”

“You are the ones who have to call them out, are you not? You are the ones who tell them that there is a pollution incident, so it is up to you to report.”

“Thank you for coming. Please excuse my pronunciation if I get the names of places wrong; I am from Cornwall, not the north-west. The BBC reported on untreated sewage being released at Wallasey pumping station, which is within an SSSI by the Mersey, but the event was downgraded and the EA did not attend. The “Panorama” …”

“I am back in Cornwall. Sorry about that.”

“I am sorry, not South West Water. I am back in yesterday.”

“I am just trying to understand something. When you look at the £3.2 million in the round and you think about the fact that water is a monopoly, that it used to be a public sector job and that the Prime Minister gets £167,000 or whatever he gets, it looks incredible. Are you saying that only 25% of your salary is for yo…”

“It is more that there is money in that pot that seems to have been used to pay dividends that could not have been paid.”

“We have not heard this before.”

“So it is not really £3 billion.”

“It is probably me.”

“I am just trying to get my head around this. Trimpley was set up and then bought by the water company. Essentially, you are given an IOU for £3 billion. You said that the ODIs were not drawn down. Is that £3 billion real? Is there any money in this company? What is that £3 billion?”

“Yes, but you can see why there might be an issue with trust, because releasing sewage into Windermere is something that has happened historically, and it looks, from the ICO investigation, like it has been covered up. You can understand how much more work than ever you would need to do to convince people that you have …”

“There is a history of spills into Windermere, is there not? This was only last year, and it had happened in previous years, so why have lessons not been learned? This is a recurring problem.”

“I wanted to move on to the Windermere events. I understand that there have been a number of spills into Windermere. We have talked a little bit about the release of information. I wanted to talk about the response. One of the BBC investigations said that the incident in February 2024 was not reported to the EA until 13…”

“How many times have they been to do that specifically?”

“Have they specifically been looking at the reporting of incidents?”

“How often does the EA come and do audits on whether the reporting is correct or whether it is looking at the right things?”

“Do you think that your four-star environmental rating might be at risk? If these incidents are not being correctly reported or monitored by the EA, does that not mean that, if this level of mistakes is happening, the four-star rating is not right? Is it wrong?”

“Did they get it wrong 60 times? Did they not realise that it was as serious as it should have been? Is that what you are saying—that you reported and they made a mistake?”