CAN Citizen’s Arrest Network

Email: press@citizensarrestnetwork.org 

Images and Videos

Today, a group of women entered the headquarters of Wessex Water, Severn Trent Water, Southern Water and Anglian Water to make citizens arrests and deliver evidence dossiers.They are accusing the CEO’s of being personally liable for damaging the public's right to clean water under the Public Nuisance Act. 

A spokesperson stated: 

“The government's measures to tackle pollution have failed, so we are pursuing prosecution against the CEOs responsible”

Police were called to Anglian Water HQ in Huntingdon, Cambridge, after two women attempted to place CEO Mark Thurston under Citizen's Arrest, however Thurston evaded them. 

At the Severn Trent HQ in Coventry, Police Officers who attended the scene were handed evidence of CEO Olivia Ruth Garfield’s breach of the Public Nuisance Act. One of the women, Nicky Heatherington, heard the Police remark: “If you get our bills down, we’ll be happy!”

At Wessex Water HQ in Claverton Down, Bath, CEO Ruth Jefferson was present in the building however after the women told her they were placing her under Citizen’s Arrest she left the lobby and sent another staff member in her place. Local police did not respond to calls to attend.

At Southern Water HQ in Worthing, the company’s head of Legal received the evidence dossier and signed to confirm receipt. However, one of the women attempting to deliver the evidence dossier was manhandled by security, before being locked out of the building. Police attended the scene and took away the evidence to review.

Sara Melly is one of the women, who wanted to speak to the CEO of Severn Trent Water, Olivia Ruth Garfield. She said:

“We’re putting the decision makers at the top of British Water companies on notice. Water Companies have been in the news for years now over rising costs, huge profits and millions of litres of sewage in our water ways. Every time they are fined and continue to pollute, it’s time CEOs were put in jail.

In the last few days creditors for Thames Water have requested leniency for up to 15 years from river pollution rules, and today we are waiting to see if Ofwat will raise our bills above the cap - again, where does this end? The public is fed up and it’s time to put a stop to this crap.”

Of the 4 companies that were approached today, each have been accused of profiteering and polluting local waterways:

CEO Mark Thurston of Anglian Water, has seen the company receive a fine of £62.8m for repeated failures to address their poor sewage infrastructure¹, and continue to be one of the worst companies in the country for sewage spills². 1,347 events were reported in January and February of this year alone. Thurston is also set to earn nearly £700,000 a year for his role and allow dividends payouts exceeding £88m, while customers' bills increased by 19% this year³.

CEO of Severn Trent Water for over a decade, Olivia Ruth Garfield has made headlines in the past year for defending her £3.2m pay for 2024, which included a £584,000 bonus⁴. This was despite a £2m fine for over 260m litres of sewage being spilt into the River Trent, an increase on the previous year⁵. Severn Trent made a pre-tax profit of £297.8m, while household bills rose 21% this year and dividend payouts increased⁶.

CEO of Southern Water, Lawrence Gosden, took home a massive £1.4m salary, despite the government bonus ban⁷. Under Gosden, Southern Water is responsible for the most serious category of sewage pollution into rivers and seas, and is under criminal investigation by the Environment Agency⁸. A letter was signed by 10 MPs in July representing constituencies served by Southern Water urging Gosden to reject his bonus following bill increases and poor water quality⁹.

Wessex Water CEO, Ruth Jefferson, only been in place for a year, but has worked at the company for almost a decade, overseeing legal compliance at a company that was taken to court last year following the death of over 2000 fish near Weston-super-Mare due to pollution incidents¹⁰. Wessex was named as one of the 10 companies that the government included in their bonus ban¹¹ due to over 1m hrs of monitored spill events from 2020-2024.

Thames Water were also approached in March of this year in a similar manner, where a member of the public approached their headquarters and called the police in order to arrest the CEO, Chris Weston and their CFO, Alastair Cochran. The group of women also Citizen’s Arrested several oil and gas executives for their damage to the environment. 

-ENDS-

Sources