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'I Will Fight' - Julie Wassmer on her Four Year Boycott and Taking on SW in Court

Great piece in The Times by Adam Vaughan on veteran boycotter and co-founder of Boycott Water Bills Julie Wassmer's plan to take on Southern Water in court


Friday 24 January 2025





It isn’t easy living with the constant threat of either bailiffs turning up on your door or being taken to court,” said Julie Wassmer, who has been boycotting her wastewater bill for the past four years in protest against sewage pollution.

Wassmer, 72, had been expecting a threat of court action, and it has now finally arrived. “The only way that I can deal with this really is to try and fight it,” she said.

The novelist and TV screenwriter from Whitstable, Kent, began withholding payment after becoming frustrated that taking part in anti-pollution protests against Southern Water was not enough.

The novelist became frustrated after protesting repeatedly against sewage pollution

Wassmer has now received a phone call and a letter from South East Water, which handles billing for Southern Water, warning of potential court action if she does not pay. She has been paying for water supply but owes more than £1,000 in wastewater charges.

“I just decided more robust direct action was needed than just turning up with a placard once a year,” Wassmer said of why she started her boycott in 2021. Around that time, the singer and Band Aid founder Bob Geldof urged people to withhold bill payments to Southern Water after it was fined a record £90 millionfor deliberately dumping sewage into the sea and rivers.


“There’s been national outrage about this [sewage pollution],” said Wassmer. “I think the only thing that prevents people from joining us is the fear of repercussions, the fear of having bailiffs at your door or being taken to court or having a poor credit rating.

“But at 72, I don’t have those fears. The fears that I have are continued fears about our environment and for future generations,” said Wassmer, who has written episodes of the TV show Whitstable Pearl. She has not looked at her credit rating, as she has paid off her mortgage and has not bought anything on credit.

South East Water made its first attempts to reclaim the outstanding money in August 2023, sending her a letter warning that she would soon face court action. However, she asked for time to seek legal advice to defend her position and said the company had been “quite understanding” in waiting. Other water bill boycotters have faced debt collection agencies.

However, the company now appears to have run out of patience. “Regrettably, if customers continue to withhold payment for the Southern Water portion of their bill, we will follow our standard approach to recover non-payment. While we understand their concerns, we would encourage them to reconsider their decision,” a spokeswoman for South East Water said.

Wassmer said that if South East Water pushed ahead with legal action, she would launch a counter-claim. The 1991 Water Industry Act says that companies do not require a contract with customers to charge them money.


However, Wassmer said she has been advised by law firms that the act does not preclude them from having an implicit contract with customers to whom they provide services. She argued that a failure to stop sewage spills amounts to not delivering those services.

Wassmer has now been told she faces court action over the unpaid bills


Southern Water was responsible for 29,494 sewage spills across Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in 2023, up from 16,688 the previous year. The company is hiking household bills by more than other water company over the next five years, with a 53 per cent increase to £642 a year for typical use. Nationally, the average increase is 36 per cent by 2030.

Lawrence Gosden, the firm’s CEO, this week admitted water outages in south-east England over the last 14 months were “inexcusable”, and admitted the company’s response was “nowhere near good enough”.

Asked about outages in Hastings, Rye and Southampton, he told MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs committee: “It is a completely unacceptable position for there to have been any incidents.” The executive also said the impact of his company’s sewage spills on tourism in seaside towns “genuinely breaks my heart”.


Wassmer, like the former Undertones singer and campaigner Feargal Sharkey, argued Southern Water is trying to raise money for improvements that householders have already paid for — something that the regulator Ofwat says it prevents. “I cannot see the justice in being asked to pay twice,” she said.

It is unclear precisely how many other people have followed Wassmer’s lead and are refusing to pay their wastewater bills. However, she receives daily emails via a website she helped to create, which provides advice for people who want to boycott their water bill. The campaign group Extinction Rebellion has also urged people to withhold payment over pollution concerns.

“From the response we’ve had on the website, I believe there are now thousands of people who are boycotting their bills,” Wassmer said.

A Southern Water spokesman said: “Our £1.5 billion clean rivers and seas plan — as part of our most ambitious investment programme ever — will deliver the change our communities want to see. But we can only do this with the support of billpayers, and we’re working hard to balance what they pay with what they can afford.”

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