{"id":445775,"date":"2026-02-26T01:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T01:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/445775\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T01:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T01:23:07","slug":"lawsuit-against-south-west-water-over-sewage-widens-to-more-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/445775\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit against South West Water over sewage widens to more towns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leigh Day said anyone who had been affected by sewage spills was eligible to join the legal action.<\/p>\n

It said the claim was launched in 2024 after separate legal action taken by keen swimmer Jo Bateman<\/a> from Exmouth.<\/p>\n

The retired physiotherapist, whose claim is ongoing, said swimming benefitted her physical and mental health but frequent sewage spills on her local beach prevented her from entering the water. <\/p>\n

The firm said so far more than 1,400 people who argued pollution had negatively impacted businesses, many of which rely on tourism, had joined the claim.<\/p>\n

It argued “SWW’s failings were wide and entrenched in many coastal towns across the Devon and Cornwall region”, not just the Exmouth area, and it highlighted a 2025 investigation by water regulator Ofwat<\/a> into its mismanagement of wastewater treatment works and sewer networks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Day said anyone who had been affected by sewage spills was eligible to join the legal action.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-445775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}