Meetings

Freshwater Bay Residents' Association
Chair: Neil Aplin
Treasurer: Mark Siebenmann
Membership Secretary: Karen Aplin
Secretary: Nadine van Poeteren
Committee:
Paul Mocroft
Becca Cameron
Lesley Cunningham
Julia Bridgeman

Minutes of AGM held on 26th October 2023 at 7 pm at Freshwater Parish Hall, Victoria Road.
Present:
Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Committee members: Paul Mocroft, Becca Cameron, Lesley Cunningham, Julia Bridgeman

Invitees:
Bob Seely - MP for Isle of Wight
Keith Herbert- Southern Water
Chani Kind - IOW Rep Surfers Against Sewage
Sue Barker- Swim the Wight

Members of the Public:
Councilor Chris Jarman, Allan Lockett, Jennie Cartright, Mark Orchard, Jill Creasey, Roger & Sheila Spivey, Roy Roach, Jane Wooley-Dodd, Jacqueline Robertson, Emma Cox, Gail F Knight, Gay and Andrew Barrington-White, Boris Moscoff, Judith Hunt, Terry Butcher, Paul Longman, Josephine Martin, David and Tracy Cartwright, Eileen Way. Jo and Gary Payne, Roger & Cristel Plummer, Paul Windridge, Barbara & David Pilcher, Joy Marshall, Steve Haldy, Catherine Heatley, Paul Townsend, James Cave, Sheila Plucknett, I.A. Brown, Peer and Julia Sheard, Harald Schenk, Janet White, Annettee Scivier, Shirly & Rod Hockin, Barry Ecuyer, Anne Power, Sue Farrow, Mark & Mary Emmett, Martin & Gail Wannell, Huw Jenkins, Ann Simpson, Nigel Shaw.

Apologies: Karen Aplin, Jan and Paul Heath, Dympna Lockett, Jan & Paul Heath, Patricia Kendrick, Nick and Jane Wilde, Mike Hoare.

The meeting commenced at 1900 hours by the Chair welcoming all and thanking them for attending.
The Minutes of the last meeting held in July were taken as approved.
The Chair then handed over to Becca to introduce the discussion on pollution of our beaches and sewage discharges.

Discussion of Pollution and Storm Discharges with Bob Seely, MP, Keith Herbert - Southern Water and Chani Kind- Surfers Against Sewage

Becca began with a bit of background information for those that weren't at our previous meetings where discussions about the Yar and pollution and sewage.
Chris Jarman had made contact with Southern Water, with these complaints and as a result it was confirmed that the company will provide all households in our area water butts free of charge next year.
Whilst this is a welcome development, we didn't think that it went far enough in solving the problem. It was noted that during the first day of the summer holiday nearly the whole of the islands' beaches were deemed no go areas due to sewage/storm discharge and red flag postings. These spills didn't even correlate with heavy rain fall.
Becca's grandchildren came over for their weeks holiday in August. The Safer Seas and Sewage App said sewage was discharged so it was not safe to swim. Her Grandchildren love swimming but couldn't.swim in our sea. Her daughter had not much money left after paying the ferry, and having to pay for the children to go to the sports center worked out so expensive for her, a single widowed mum.
The suggestion was that the water company should pay for the kids to swim in public pool if they pollute the seas. In addition there should be warnings on beaches telling people it isn't safe to swim.
There were reports of sewage discharge into the Yar yet the Yar River is not only SSSI but RAMSAR internationally protected and shouldn't be having sewage dumped into it. FBRA sent letters showing their evidence of discharges at Bow Bridge, School Green Road and Coastguard Lane to Southern Water, Yarmouth Harbour commissioners and our MP. Thank you Huw Jenkins for supplying us with the spill data on these sites.
Concern is also for the safety of children, swimmers and wildlife being affected.
The Island is a holiday Isle and cleanliness of beaches and seas must be a priority or tourism will suffer. We want to find a solution to the sewage issue. More funding to update sewage system, Bigger holding tanks, water butts given to all residents of Freshwater, Freshwater Bay,Totland and Colwell.
Southern water confirmed in writing "The Area Combined Sewer Overflow reduction team of Southern Water will now spend £50m on storm overflow reduction by end of 2025" and "that the following outfalls in West Wight are in this plan: Bow Bridge, School Green Road, Bouldnor and Norton. As Norton pumps all of West Wight, the whole catchment area is effectively in scope"

On 25th August 2023 , Nadine and I met with Bob Seely, our MP at Freshwater Conservative Club to discuss these issues. Bob Seely said he has won a commitment from Southern Water that it will prioritise the Isle of Wight for a multi-million-pound investment work designed to significantly reduce sewage and storm overflows into the seas around the Island.
He also said that there is talk to incentivize locals to do away with concrete driveways and replace them with grass to increase storm water soak aways as well as having trees with clear areas around to soak up the rain water. The Island and especially Freshwater is now set to become a leading 'pathfinder' site, which will act as an example of best practice by Southern Water.
We Invited Bob to come to our meeting tonight along with a Southern Water representative, Chani from Surfers against Sewage also wished to join our discussion.

Welcome Bob Seely, Keith Herbert and Chani Kind.
Introduction by Bob Seely
Bob Seely started the discussions off with an introduction where he stated that he hoped all will see and understand and be broadly in agreement as to what the issues are, but also how they are going to be solved in the coming months and years.
Firstly to follow up some of the things that Rebecca mentioned, Bob is trying to get the water Butts available to everybody, but not everyone may qualify. Southern Water will be providing a slow release Water Butt. This is a way of controlling the water flow. It is not the only idea. it is one part and quite a cheap, small part, of a multi-million package of ideas, which the water company here is going to invest in.
The Isle of Wight is going to serve as an example of national best practice. Why was this? The Conservative government, understood there was a problem, And in fact, it's Philip Dunn, Conservative MP for Ludlow whose been campaigning for years. In the last decade / 15 years, the water companies were tasked with improving drinking water quality, which arguably wasn't good enough. We needed to make sure that the quality of water in your taps was drinkable, and significantly reduce leakages - leakage is an absolute scandal. The amount of water is wasted in leakage is enormous and It's why Thames Water are building and spending £10 billion for the vast river - a pipe under underneath London.
It's interesting to be aware that we've reduced leakages by about 38% since privatization and the end of nationalized water companies.
However, over the last decade, what has become clear is that both rivers and beaches but primarily for rivers, storm overflow has been significantly damaging wildlife and the quality of rivers. That isn't so much a problem for the IOW because we don't have the rivers, but we have the beaches and seas, if you're in Herefordshire it is significant, however human sewage is not the overwhelming problem with most of the pollution that we are now seeing.
The overwhelming problem comes from agricultural runoff, and specifically nitrates and other chemicals used in fertilizers. This creates algae blooms in rivers. These algae blooms suck all the oxygen out of rivers and suffocate the fish. Clearly, storm overflows have been abused by all the Water Companies and Southern Water was fined 90 million, not for stuff here, thankfully, but for stuff in Sussex and Kent.
The environmental act went through. The Duke of Wellington put down an amendment saying separate all sewage from storm overflow, and the Conservatives voted against it, because it would cost in the low hundreds of billions. The effect would have been to put all your water bills up between 2-4000 pounds extra a year, it would be very unpalatable thing to do.
The environmental act is stipulates, a significant reduction year on year in storm overflows throughout the UK, until effectively in about 15 20 years time, they become a thing of the past. But you can't achieve that overnight. I'll give you an example. Back in 2005 / 2010 only about 5-7% of the storm overflows were monitored. We didn't know how much we were polluting and a generation ago, more than 30 years ago, half our sewage was going untreated into the sea.
So I do take slight issue with comments that say our beaches are unclean. Out of 15 monitored beaches on the Isle of Wight 13 are rated excellent, and two are rated good. Now you can argue that the environment agency needs to improve its monitoring process. In 5 to 10 years, I suspect for every monitored beach in the UK, certainly on the IOW, there'll be an E. coli reading, e-coli occurs naturally in the environment, but there will be readings in beaches to ensure that they are safe.
In actual fact our beaches like our environment, now, is actually historically much cleaner than it has been.
The environment Act mandates massive change, £56 billion is going in to clean up water and sewage in the next 20 years. It's actually bigger than the hospital building programme. But it's there because the privatized utilities are borrowing that money from private markets, so you're not having to pay for all of it, certainly not up front, your bills are going up from water, but not in a way which is going to cause or add dramatically to the cost of living, and it will at the same time significantly improve water cleanliness.
So that's the Aim - and that's the background.
Is there a problem with sewage overflows into the sea and rivers? Yes.
Has it been getting worse in the last 10 years? Yes.
Have the water companies been lazy? Yes.
Could the government have acted earlier. Arguably, yes,
The government is acting now. And we are introducing or attempting to introduce through the environment Act, through the national plan for water and through the Sewage Overflow Reduction Plan. These are the three main things which are going to significantly improve our environment, and make sure that we don't pollute really beautiful parts of the world.
Bob then introduced Chani, to talk about the surfers against sewage.

Chani, regional representative for Surfers Against Sewage.
If we, as community, connect and share as well as other communities on the island, who are experiencing similar problems to yourselves, then we can share knowledge to empower towards solutions - rather than just being upset, about which is a very emotive subject.
To begin a little about my background, I have a degree in marine geography. I worked for the Environment Agency, and I worked for big energy firm for a while, I'm currently a parent.
I took on this volunteer role because, beaches, blue spaces all quantify (through different scientific studies show) how impactful they are. They have the ability to make our lives better through physical health, through mental health, through community - and they need our protection.
Surfers Against Sewage is run by a man called Giles Bristow, and he believes in cooperation and partnerships and collaboration to enable change.
We've launched our "End Sewage" manifesto. Our manifesto is backed up by six other organisations and supported by another 8, which includes organisations like the RYAs the Rivers Trust, and many others such as the British Canoe Union,
we ask the five things
We ask that law is enforced, that currently stands.
We ask that profiteering from pollution stops.
We ask that when there's a high risk pollution event, it is dealt with effectively.
We ask for enabling Nature based solutions.
And we also asked for revealing the truth-data transparency
We do that through campaigning - as an organisation nationally - and enabling people like myself locally to connect and build through campaigns. We run a number of them, if you want to talk to me about them, please do, I've got some beach cleaning kits to take if you want to and some literature at the back to help yourself to.
But there are three that fit quite well with Freshwater. So one of them we're doing is something called the Protecting Wild Waters Campaign. In which we're trying to get 20 inland waterways bathing water designations. Now this links in, because when engaging with communities so far, the first action that seems to want to happen after you know about the problem is water quality. So through this campaign, I'm going to learn the mechanisms that occur to get the bathing water status, which have already happened with a separate group called Faeces in East Cowes, and I've passed that on to Becca so that this knowledge is shared, as I said Faeces from East Cowes, would happily do the same.
My plus one tonight is Sue - from Swim the Wight / community interest groups in the Wight. So she's here, because she's working with Pathfinder Project from Southern Water, and has been doing water quality testing off Yaverland, with the Wild Hearts Sanctuary, for a year.
This is another resource for you as a community, we don't need to relearn these things, as an island, we can utilise skill sets that are already here.
So, the other two campaigns are our Water Quality Report, which comes out every November, which builds on data from all water companies.
It builds on the Environment Agency data, and it builds on details from our own Safer Seas and Rivers Service App. This builds through and gives us a reliable source to use for lobbying as well as for journalism. And it's there as a free resource.
The Safer Seas and Rivers service App is actually on the government website as a public health tool. So it will give you near real time data on sewage discharges into the waters on bathing designated sites. They will also link with the Environment Agency to give pollution, perspective pollution incidents and pollution incidents.
It works because we do get data from the water companies and Southern and Thames Water are good at sharing their data. So they reveal the true aspects of our manifesto which is in the detail with those companies.
You can also use it to report pollution. And you can use it to report if you've been sick after an incident.
Reporting, is the biggest tool that you have as a community.

If you see a pollution incident, you must report it on to the Environment Agency on 0880 80 70 60.
If you see something, from a damage sewer of a Southern Water asset or Southern Water asset for storm waters, or for sewage, not behaving the way it should do - you must report it.
The number is 0330 303 0368 - because if we report things as community, but if they don't know because they don't have the data, they don't have the knowledge.
If we do the reporting, it will go through to strategic planning at a local level, as well as planning at a national level.
This in turn will change funding streams, investments and it'll change investigations. So because people have raised their voice, because people have said this is unacceptable (and I appreciate it isn't the only source of pollution) I really feel that there's one source of pollution might be significantly reduced. So that seas and beaches can be cleaner.
The investment programme from Pathfinder Project is what we have been asking for, it is the start of an investment into our waterways. We as a community have asked for it. It's here.
So we need to say yes, how can we help you?
How can this be installed?
How can we do this?
What can we do to make this project a success, because from this success, we could then get other investments and with the reporting to have more evidence.
To recap it is: Recommended using the
Safer Seas and Rivers Service App The Safer Seas & Rivers Service - Surfers Against Sewage (sas.org.uk).
* Report any observed pollution in the water to the Environment Agency on 0800 80 70 60.
* Report asset damage, leaks or sewage issues to Southern Water on 0330 303 0368 or at Report a leak in a public place (southernwater.co.uk).
* If you are sick after entering the water you can submit this on the SSRS app or to public health on 0344 225 3861.

Bob Seeley then explained a little about Pathfinder project.
When Southern Water was getting it in the neck effectively over the 90 million pound fine and when everyone was going ballistic over the environment act, I approached Southern Water and effectively said I can join the queue of kicking you or you can make the Isle of Wight an example of national best practice?.
So all the ideas/project that are going to happen in 10 years' time everywhere - why don't you make it happen first on the Isle of Wight? It's great to be a test site because of we are geographically isolated.
So the Pathfinder project is over and above the £60 million of investment the Southern Water have and Keith is about to explain it, but it's primarily about aligning drains and pipes so there's less leaks -
it's about increasing capacity, so there's more floodwater storage. It's about redesigning roadways so storm water doesn't just go straight down to the drains, but just gets absorbed around trees, or in rainwater gardens and swales
Most importantly, we are concerned as individuals, to slow release water butts.
Southern Water had agreed so the point is that everything that is happening to improve our environment, and improve the quality of water in the United Kingdom, is effectively happening on the Isle of Wight first.
So that's why the more involved we can get with the water butts the better. They reduce spills by up to 39 percent.

Keith from Southern Water.
Keith has worked in the water industry for about 15 years 10 of which on the Isle of Wight. And for about 13 of those years, people have generally been apathetic towards it I think for the last three years, it's fair to say that we've been in the eye of the storm, and which I think is a good thing. Because people clearly care about it as we can see from everyone showed who has showed up here tonight, to be at the forefront of it is fantastic.
Storm Overflows: One of the things about storm overflows is there's a lot of misinformation, It's quite complex. So I would like to introduce for four main points to clarify.
1. There are three types of sewer;
* Stormwater Sewers : take water from roofs, roads, driveways and open spaces
* Foul Sewers ; take water from toilets, sinks, dishwashers
* Combined Sewers ; take everything so all foul flow and rain/storm water
The reason we are where we are is because we have a combined system in West Wight, Freshwater and Yarmouth, which means when it rains, all the flow mixes with all the flows from the toilet sinks, dishwashers, and the system is overwhelmed. So just to give an idea of the quantum of the problem.
The roof area above us (Freshwater parish hall) is 360 meter squared - 5 millimeters of rain will discharge just under two tons of water into the system. And with the 60 millimeters that we got last night, this roof is one roof would have put 216 tons into our sewer. So that is the quantum of the problem.
So all the roads as well as roofs are discharging into our system, and it's not really built or designed for that. So really what we're trying to do is either slow that down or take it out.

2. The second point is that (combined Sewer overflow) CSOs protect something. So lots of parts of the Isle of Wight live close to, or around below sea level. So if we were to block them up, areas would flood during very, very small rainfall events. Hence blocking off is not an option available to us. So for all the hundreds of people that were flooded recently, it would have been 1000s of times worse if it weren't for CSOs, not condoning them, but that's why they were there and that's why they were originally designed.

3. So then the final point is, you're left with two options, build a big tank at the end of it and hold it, or you can take the storm water out.

What we're trying to do is a mixture of two - both have pros and cons. The big tank is, (a cubic meter of water weighs a ton), and water companies use about 5% of the National Grid just pumping water round in circles. So that's pumping stormwater that doesn't need treating, in my view.
As most sewage treatment plants relies on biological processes, if you feed them stormwater, you starve them, you get a poor quality effluent and what we really want is just that pure foul flow in our system, not the stormwater. But big tanks do work. They do have an effect. But it's not uncommon for some of our sites to get 10 times the normal flow during storms.. So it's not always a sustainable option.
Removing and slowing this water down is what Pathfinder project is aiming at, if we can manage the water from a roof like this, treat water as a resource rather than chucking it away. That's where the synergies and the good stuff happens. So with that, we've developed a five point process, which we're currently rolling out across the Isle of Wight.

Pathfinder Project
Step 1. Investigating/upgrading all of the current treatment and pumping stations. Can we pump more? Can we treat more? Can we store more flow during the storm?
The water companies have probably got about 40 to 50% of the answers by upgrading and improving our apparatus, however we won't get where we need to be by relying on just the water companies doing it alone.
Step 2. Misconnections. These are when big stormwater lines have been plumbed in to our system. And that's water that doesn't need to be treated, that's water that can be released to the environment.
Sometimes we find misconnections so big, we have to engage with the Environment Agency to make sure that we don't cause flooding by taking them out.
Step 3. Then the third step is looking at big roofs and working with property owners to minimize flow. We know where all the big roofs are and, we know where all these big roofs are connected. Frustratingly, in Freshwater Bay, a lot of the big properties you see on the seafront, rather than have their stormwater going into the sea, it's actually connected into the foul system. So we need to work with all of those property owners to see what we can do about their drainage because it doesn't need to go into the foul system drain and that water can go straight out to the sea, because it's rainwater.
Step 4. Highways; if you go along the road, you see these little metal gullies by the side of the road. Generally, they go into the Foul sewer, again, that's water that doesn't need treating, we want to use nature based solutions.
So we're working with the Isle of Wight Council to introduce tree pits, swales, and rain gardens as part of the public highway to either attenuate or slowdown that flow. Because again, the water lands on the road rather than soaking away it goes straight to the foul system.
Step 5. Water Butts. They are a nice thing to have about your property, more importantly they make a big impact on storm flow. For example- say that the population of freshwater and Yarmouth is 7000. If everyone takes a water butt, each one of those is to 200 litres. So thats 200 litres, that's not going into our system all at once, if you give that to everyone that's a lot of water -1,400,000 tons of water.
So there's kind of a five minute overview of what we're about and what we're trying to do as well as some other activities.
Southern Water also do a fair bit of lobbying. Frustratingly, water companies are not statutory consultees in the planning process. So for developers, there's no obligation for them to talk to the water company about capacity.
We want that to change. We want to be the statutory consultees, enabling us to ensure that developers are doing the right thing and not adding more stormwater to the system. Currently, there's an automatic right to connect. So even if there are capacity issues, we do not have any legal powers to stop that.
The Environment Act that Bob was talking about - that remedies that. We want to be in a position where we stop developers connecting if we know there's going to be capacity issues.
And then finally, we have a system called "Beach Boy" and Chani and Surfers Against Sewage have a system called the Safer Seas App. What that does is it tells you whether there has or hasn't been a discharge.
Unfortunately, what it doesn't do is tell you whether it's safe to swim or not. That is the biggest challenge that we've got. So as part of my team, one of the things that we're doing is we're funding citizen science projects where people take samples to try and get real time water quality data.
That in itself is problematic as laboratory analysis takes 24 to 48 hours, which isn't good enough if you've got your bucket and spade and want to go to the sea now.
We're funding a number of citizen science projects to give people real time data. So they know whether or not it's safe to go in the sea at that time.
So there's a list of things that they're doing. And as you would probably have figured out, only one part of the process is Southern Water maintenance and investing on their sites that will have a finite impact.
The rest of it is us working in the catchment. We have no legal powers to enforce any of it.
Which is why in 2024, we will be going probably door to door to encourage people to manage stormwater on their property. So that's why a large amount of public participation is required.
Storm overflows have been described as no one's fault, but everyone's problem.

Keith then handed back to Bob Seeley.
Who confirmed that when Southern Water do the right thing, he will support them. So if they want to lobby me to tell government to give them more statutory consultation or force them to have a consultation role in planning development. Also, when they don't do the right thing, I will be the first person to point it out. But it is important that we work together.
To Southern Water's credit, they have big plans for swales and treatments in Newport. And it's the council that are saying, well, we don't really like it, because you're going to shut down chunks of Newport. And it's all a bit pricey.
If we want improvements you have to make sure it happens. And if the council don't let Southern Water do this work, Bob will be very vocal in his criticism, as I'm sure Chris Jarman will be as well, because he wants the Island to be a role model for a better, greener future. And this is how we achieve it.

Just finally, on the Freshwater letters, when Southern Water go door knocking, Bob Seely will send out a letter 2-3 weeks in advance to explain what is being offered and will encourage residents to take them up on the offer. In this letter he would also explain the details and explanation of what is being offered so that residents have a full understanding of the situation and more public engagement.
The message from Bob to Southern water was to provide more water butts and not less, so that everybody buys in.
Finally a word on natural methods, we're now replanting seagrass in the Solent because seagrass absorbs carbon, it's also great source of food for wildlife. We are also placing oysters, native UK oysters, which are being a seeded in the Medina and they will go and repopulate. Extraordinarily, a single adult oyster, cleans 250 litres of water a day.

Chani then pointed out that the water butts being offered are made of recycled plastic. So they're part of the circular economy. They are recycled plastic, and they can be recycled again.

The floor was then open for Questions:
Q: We import a lot of our water from Hampshire, drinking water, why have we not got more reservoirs, which would actually take some of our stormwater away?
A: Chalk streams are rarer than rain forests. There's only about 200 in the world. And about 120 of them are in South England. There's two classified on the Isle of Wight at Luckley Brook and the Calboourne. As we don't get to choose where we extract water, we get told exactly how much and when we can extract that water. So yes, about a third of our water comes from the river Test, some of it comes from Carisbrook some of it comes from Sandown and smaller sources elsewhere.
But in terms of applying for new licenses and reservoirs, reservoirs take up an absolutely huge amount of space. And I just don't think that's going to be practical . However, we're effectively surrendering a number of our extraction licenses to reduce the impact on Chalk streams. This is why Sandown is going to get a water recycling plant in the next five years to recycle the water that currently gets pumped out to sea. Also there's going to be a big reservoir at Havant Thicket, just north of Portsmouth to effectively do what you say and store more flow. So we don't have to rely as much on chalk streams.
Bob Seely then added: There are a series of things that are going to happen in the next five or 10 years which are important for the future. And one of them, is that the IOW will start being a lead site for recycling.
We need to extract less from the chalk streams on the island, to extract less from Hampshire as well, because it alleviates the pressure on those unique and beautiful chalk streams, and these rules are set by the Environment Agency.
But the next steps, are going to be a significant increase in the amount of recycling that gets done, and as Keith said, that initial process is starting at Sandown for the recycling.
Keith then explained how it would work.
At the moment, most of the sewage is pumped to Sandown sewage treatment works, where it's treated, and then pumped out via a three kilometer pipe into the channel. Our plan is to take about 100 litres a second of that and put it through a reverse osmosis plant, which takes it back to h2o in purity, then we add the salts back into it and then put it back into the Eastern Yar to augment the River with more flow during times of drought. Then that will be extracted and treated for potable water for human consumption.

Q: What are the practicalities of insisting on all new housing developments, all of the waste goes into a biodegradable system and can then if necessary, pumped back into a system because it's clean water.
A: There's choices, the centralized sewage treatment system, or there of a more localized system. If there's a release to the environment from a private one, it needs to be governed by the Environment Agency similar to what we have. And there's pros and cons of doing it in different ways.
In a more urban setting, it makes more sense to have a centralized treatment system, If you're way out in the sticks, it makes sense to do what you explained. You can get good treatment systems these days that produce a high quality effluent, but if it had to satisfy the environment agency requirements.
In the bill and the environment Act, there are stipulations on new developments, which are going to make a considerable difference. Please e-mail Bob Seely for further information about proposed restrictions for new developments.
As its not until about 2025 that connection to the system can be declined for over capacity by water companies. Southern Water have responded to the Isle of Wight Council's planning strategy to say, no more Storm Water connections into the foul Sewers, and are asking for a complete embargo on this. As Southern Water are not statutory consultees, they can't do anything and need to rely on the Planning Officers of the Isle of Wight council to do that. However when that legislation comes into effect, they will be able to object. Unfortunately, at present we have no powers to stop using new connections at all, this is called an automatic right to connect.

Q: One of your points was the large volume of storm water entering the foul sewage system and about the big roofs, highways and the misconnections, but under the road there is not a dual system.
A: Good, good question. If you know that your stormwater doesn't go into the foul sewer, you will get a rebate and you will get a reduction on the bill. Because that's water that doesn't need treatment.
I outlined five points, three of them were about stormwater, which is what we worry about going into the seas and the rivers, three of the points, big roofs, highways, and misconnection, so the moment they're going into foul water. So who owns the pipes under the roads?
Sometimes Southern Water, sometimes it's the local authority. So it's a real mixture of ownership. We spent the first year of doing pathfinder finding out where everything is connected. So we spent the first year putting dye down so as to finding out where it goes, we do have maps, we have good plans. But before we go and do a project like this, we need to be absolutely sure. Otherwise, it's just wasted money. So we spent a year doing connectivity surveys.
In response to the question in some cases, if you've got huge big storm water line, that's completely overwhelming the sewer, it needs to be taken out. In some cases, that cannot happen. How do we slow it down? Diverting those stormwater channels if we can, if we can't, then we slow it down.
If we slow it down our plant can cope, but over a longer period. So if you look at what we're doing with planters and water buckets, and drainage ditches, we're not strictly speaking taking it out, we're slowing down the flow, slow the flow we call it just so that a short, sharp five millimetre rainstorm in the summer shouldn't cause a combined sewer overflow. It does, because it all hits our system simultaneously. If everyone's got a waterbutt, and all the water is diverted from the planters or the swales, rain gardens, tree pits etc., in the road, it will just get there really slowly. And that's what we're trying to do.

Q: How much responsibility does Southern Water take for storm drains, as opposed to IOW counsel or Island Roads? Because the three of them seem to interlink, but none individually take responsibility. So if there's a storm drain that's overflowing, e.g. at Freshwater Bay, because they may or may not be draining into a main sewer. Whose responsibility is that? Is it the Council, Southern Water or Island Roads, Environment Agency...you don't kind of join the dots somehow.
A: It's complicated. So if you're in a house, you are responsible for the drainage in your property. So if you have a driveway, you're responsible, but when it goes out onto the pavement, then it's the local authority that becomes responsible, then it will get into the gully again, still local authority, then it will go into a sewer. Now sometimes that's Southern Water, sometimes that's the local authority.
If it goes into a stormwater sewer, it goes into a water course, if it's an ordinary water course, you're back to the property owner, if it's classified as main river then it's back to the Environment Agency, if it's a foul sewer, it's Southern Water.
So, if there's flooding and pollution problems in the area, everyone needs to get together.. It's a kind of community response for so many different agencies responsible for it. So if you take anything away from tonight, flooding and pollution is a shared combined problem where everyone is involved.

Q: If there are school drains overflowing, onto the road, whose responsibility is that?
A: That would be IOW counsel/Island Roads.
Q: Surely we're paying Southern Water to deal with wastewater - so shouldn't that be Southern Waters' Responsibility? We're not paying Island Roads?
A: It's a good question. Water companies are funded to meet the requirements of their permit. So all the sites that are capable of discharging have a permit which is a long list of strict rules that need to be followed in order for that discharge to be legal. If the discharge is legal, then that's what we're funded to do.
That that's why storm overflows are so problematic. So one of the moral mazes in all of this is, who's going to pay for it, who's going to foot the additional cost that is required to do that. So as I said before, some of our sites, you know, treating the dry weather flow is great, but 10 times the dry weather flow comes in, we're not really going to be able to deal with that, we're going to need to go outside and work on other people's drainage to solve that.
So the idea of water company saying, don't worry, we'll just take it from here, we'll treat the lo... that's just not going to happen. That's not going to be possible. We need to think about how we can take that out. We need to work in the catchment, in the community to do that.

Q: What is a swale
A: If you look along the road, you'll see a little metal thing the water disappears down there into our sewer. A swale is a grassy little ditch, a little strip, so the water goes off the road into that grassy little ditch and soaks away rather than goes into our sewer. So a very simple solution.

Q: Over the last 20 odd years, particularly country roads, there was always a ditch, they appear to have all disappeared.
A: Yes, I know and that's what we wish to introduce, because they're a very effective way of slowing down flow. So rather than chucking water in the sewer, what we're trying to actually do is re green urban areas and make them more attractive, because you could plant wildflower in a swale and make it look very attractive Indeed, you know, the council has a tree planting target, we were designing trees that intersect the storm water and the water goes into the root complex of the tree rather than being chucked into the foul sewer. A lot of what we're doing is going to make urban areas more attractive, as well as reducing storm overflows.

Any further questions on the subject please contact Keith.herbert@southernwater.co.uk
Thanks was given to Bob Seeley, Chani and Keith for their time in attending.

Camp Road Development
There have been no further significant developments, however Natural England are raising concerns regarding the development.

Gate Lane Toilets
Previous issues were discussed with the contractors, one of which was the installation of an outside tap. This has now been completed- a member of the audience requested that a sign be placed above this tap to state it was "drinking water".
There have been some issues with blocked toilets which appears to have happened as the contractors connected the new toilets to the old system. Investigations as to cost to remedy this is estimated to be about ţ950. Emma Cox (member of the toilet committee) advised that she had expected the contractors to install a whole new system and not to utilise the old one, but clearly this was not the case.

Community Speed Watch Group-Progress Report
Freshwater Speed watch started 19 months ago.
Speed watch volunteers have run 172 sessions, checked the speeds of over 20,000 vehicles and recorded 1,264 speeders equivalent to 6% of all vehicles.
A speeder is breaking the speed limit by 10% + 2 i.e. 35 or more in a 30 limit.
Speeders get letters from the police - and if they are very fast, or are recorded 3 times-then they get a police visit.
It feels as though things are getting better. We see people that used to drive fast, now driving within the limit. There has also been a downward trend in the percentage of speeders, but it's not conclusive proof.
Summers Lane, a 20mph zone, continues to be the worst in terms of percentage speeders. A driver taking a child to school at the end of Summers Lane was recently recorded speeding. A few minutes later the driver stopped and asked " Why are you always here at drop-off time? Can't you go somewhere else?"
At the suggestion of the police we have started monitoring Bouldnor Road in Yarmouth which is proving to be a fairly high 8% percent of all drivers.
It's disappointing to hear that our prime minister is polarising the voters and 'slamming the brakes on the war on motorists'. It's also disappointing that the Isle of Wight Speed Review has still delivered nothing despite survey work at 400 locations being completed almost 2 years ago.
But I'd like to finish on some good news-the growth of Speed watch. When Freshwater started, it was the only team on the island. There are now 4 in operation which includes Shorwell, Havenstreet and Rookley. A further 3 are in the process of getting started- Bembridge, Chillerton and Godshill.
7 Speed watch teams will help remind people of the limits. Just as litter begets litter, so too with speed. And the converse is true- if more people stick to the limits, it's much harder for others to speed.

The floor was the open for questions
One member of the public asked for the end of Afton Road, close to the military road to be monitored and she complained of motorbikes who appear to the driving around the block speeding. Huw responded by saying that Speedwatch only operates during day light hours, however he would see if he could monitor this area in the future.

The Queens Green Canopy-Tree Planting Gate Lane Footpath
Tree Update and Bulb planting. Following the tree planting in May the trees have done well, giving a lovely display of blossoms. Volunteers watered the trees during the summer but there was a couple of issues:
Our plaque was chewed up by a lawn mower and the strimmers cut a small amount of bark. So we will be replacing the tree guards with something stronger and put another plaque up somewhere out of reach.
A couple of brown tailed caterpillar nests were found and removed. They can strip a tree of its leaves in no time at all.
Also please could you keep a lookout as 6 trees have been damaged by someone very worryingly with a knife. It was reported to the police. If you do see a person/people doing this please take a picture but don't put yourself at risk. If you see anything please contact the police or any of the members of FBRA.
Boris kindly repaired the damage with a mixture of sand, manure and clay. Thank You Boris.
The next job is to replace the guards, weed, mulch and plant bulbs. I would like to do this on Saturday 4th or Sunday 5th November, weather permitting. I will contact Tom Murphy to see if he will assist us in pruning the trees and provide mulch.

Chair's Report
When the Chair joined FBRA he set out a task to get the community working together, and over the last couple of years it seems that this has indeed happened, with tree planting, and simple events such as the future bulb planting as well as other events where are all working together for the benefit of the community.
FBRA will be holding their "Christmas Carols, Mulled Wine and Mince Pies Gathering" at St Agnes Church on 8th December - so save the date for your diary. Its quite early this year but we wanted to avoid clashes with the Pantomime and other events later in December.
The Bay Wailers will also be singing and all are welcome to come along!
The FBRA notice board has been restored and is next to the Piano (opposite St Agnes Church) please check this for all upcoming events and notices as well as our facebook page.
FBRA also requested for some storage space, which Chris Jarman kindly agreed to provide.

Parish Hall Project Fund:
Julia from the FBRA committee explained that The Parish Church Council for St Agnes & All Saints have put together a Parish Hall Project Team who hope that the project will see the Parish Hall Complex transformed into "a fully functional, safe building with modern facilities" .
A presentation was held in September - an opportunity for any of the community to meet some of the group who use the hall, see the challenges currently faced, meet the team, share your thoughts/hear the teams thoughts and meet the architect.
The is Hall part of a large complex, including kitchen, cloakrooms, storage rooms, chapel and land outside, the PCC Parochial Church Council is responsible not only for the Parish Hall, but also for All Saints Chruch and its 5 acres, St Agnes too.
The Hall is in need of attention, including structural work, heating and lighting upgrades, drainage - a full renovation, restoration package.
Currently we stand on the bottom rung of a long ladder, the Progress Project Team are working with the local architect and structural engineers who are due to perform a survey next week as there appear to be some areas which are unstable.
Once a plan is drawn we shall then go out to tender and give costs, after which we shall need to get into full fundraising mode.
If you want to learn more please leave your e-mail address so that updates can be posted to you.
A member of the audience suggested that a Community Interest Company be set up as this was a good way to progress.
A member of the public asked if the church could add funds but unfortunately they only just keep afloat as it is.

Treasurer's Report
The treasurer presented the years Accounts .

accounts 2023

Membership Secretary's Report
Karen provided an update for the meeting and sent her apologies for not being able to attend due to work commitments.
Currently we have 190 members with 1 life member and following the leaflet drop (thanks to all who assisted with the deliveries) we gained another 40 members.

A reminder to all members that membership renewals run annually and are due. Memberships runs from October to October irrespective of the actual date membership is received. Online banking details can be found on the newly updated flyers which were delivered at the end of September/beginning of October and standing orders can be made to help with timely renewals.
The renewals can be done either online via BACs-details of this is available from the committee, or via a paper form which is now available at Orchard Stores, the Beer Bus, Dimbola and the Piano.
Completed forms and payments can still be posted at Orchards.
For anyone wanting to renew their subscription tonight-please see Jenny.
Thanks once again is due to all those volunteer distributors your time is appreciated in helping to deliver updates and newsletters- you all do a great job.

Any Other Business
Terrie Butcher who very kindly takes care of the triangle of land between Guyers Road, Blackbridge Road and Bedbury Lane (opposite St Agnes), has asked for some help. The grasses have taken root and need to be thinned out a bit so if there are any volunteers, please speak with Terrie or give your name to a member of FBRA committee.
It'll only be 1 or 2 sessions that are needed to tidy this small garden up.

Help with Flower Arranging
Jane Wooley-Dodd asked if there was anyone interested in assisting her with the flower arranging at St Agnes- to be please let her know.

Dates for Next Public AGM Meeting TBA
The meeting closed at 20.45 hrs and everyone was invited to wine and cheese.

Minutes of Public Meeting held on 27^th July 2023 at 7 pm at Freshwater Parish Hall, Victoria Road.

Present: Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Committee members: Paul Mocroft, Becca Cameron, Lesley Cunningham.

Members of the Public: Councilor Chris Jarman, Allan Lockett, Mark & Kim Orchard, Jon & Barbara Allford, Jill Creasey, Sheila Spivey, Roy Roach, Stuart Blackburn, Jane Wooley-Dodd, Sandy Thearle, Valerie Rezin, Jacqueline Robertson, Emma Cox, Simon Asawan-Bolt, Sandy Millmore, Gail S Kupt, Peter and Wendy Binham, Arthur Cook, Corinne & Robert Quain, Olga Budden, Gay and Andrew Barrington-White, Maureen Milla, Graham Knight, Boris Moscoff, Phil Steer, Judith Hunt, Jane and Nick Wilde, Claire Philpot, Spencer Stafford, Terry Butcher.

Apologies: Julia Bridgeman, Karen Aplin, Jan and Paul Heath, Jayne and David MacDonald-Payne, Dympna Lockett, John Medland.

The meeting commenced at 1900 hours by the Chair welcoming all and thanking them for attending. The Committee present also introduced themselves. The Chair advised all that he is trying to see things done in the community to become more integrated and if anyone has any ideas on how to achieve this, then please get in touch.

The Minutes of the last meeting held in January were taken as approved, with apologies for the omission of Jaqueline Robertson's apologies in the last meetings minutes.

The Chair then handed over to invitee Mark to provide an update on work being carried out at the Albion.

Mark advised all that A2K Leisure has bought The Albion and a further company has been formed under "Albion Freshwater" who will be the operating arm with A2K Leisure being the landlords. The Albion is being upgraded and renovated and the owners are want to be involved with this development. For those not aware, A2K also own the highly successful Sentry Mead in Totland, which is also run by Mark and Gail.

Initially it was thought that the building would need a quick lick of paint, interior and exterior face lift and be ready for this year's season- then close down for a more intense refurbishment period. However, as renovations progressed more problems were found which had to be addressed immediately and the original plan was not possible to go ahead.

The current team operating is now massive - walls have come down, new lintels erected and what started as a small project has moved on to become a massive upgrade. The end product is going to be a glorious looking building, A 40-41 bedroomed Hotel.

The former Bar will become a residents Lounge, the former Dining Room will be converted into a Bar/Bistro (initially serving Bar Snacks then a Bistro) but not a take away to the Beach. This avoids additional littering of the area. The Bar will be open to the public, with seating of 50 and a capacity of 80/100. The general theme will be "no airs and graces"- so not a snooty establishment.

The Restaurant will ultimately be 120 seats although initially it wont serve to capacity but has the option with partitions to adjust to smaller numbers and remain initimate. It will not be a "fine dining" menu, but excellent traditional and wholesome simple food coupled with excellent service.

The quality of the rooms and how well we serve our guests will be our brand - we (Gail and Mark) are the brand, our interpersonal skills and that of our staff speaks for us in the reviews we have gained at Sentry Mead and we intend to keep this style of management for the The Albion with excellent service and excellent surroundings. The Rooms are going to be superb, the bathrooms are going in at the moment, with double walk in showers and roll top baths with sea views. Its going to be stunning. 7 Rooms will have their own terrance and 3^rd Floor will have extended balconies big enough for a sun lounger. Of the 40 rooms 37 will have a sea view.

Residents may wonder the patchy paints currently appearing - this is being tested so that we ensure a choice of the best options and quality to last for 10 years, windows and doors will be painted anthracite grey.

At present some of the walls - previously just held up with plaster need to be rebuilt and replastered so it is currently going through an intense upgrade and we hope to open for Easter next year.

A: The Swimming pool will be open to residents and the SPA is in the planning permission. Mark advised that he was not certain that if it would be open to the public but he would like to introduce a gym membership scheme with packages available to the public, but at the present time this is an unknown.

A: All capital expense is covered for a Mark opening in time for Easter providing there are no further delays!. The current weather we are experiencing has not helped and delays mean further expense.

A: If the SPA is to go ahead we will lose car parking space - but as mentioned this is not yet authorized. The car park will have 6 electric charging stations and will be a ANPR Car parking (automatic number plate recognition). We shall have the same number of car parking spaces as currently - naturally for residents, currently it is unknown if non residents can park there.

A: The owner of Delicia remains as previously together with the plot of land. We did offer to buy Delicia, however he offered his house instead! Delicia is currently under lease to another person who has this until 1^st Jan. It is currently operating as the Surf Shack and will probably operate for the season - perhaps after that he may be willing to reconsider the sale? If that were the case we would want to build a nice working pub with good quality food and drink and perhaps live music.

A: Yes, we were operating The Bay but it unfortunately had to close down due to difficulties with manning. It was put up for sale to see what would happen and what kind of interest there was. Someone was interested in leasing it and wanted a restaurant built - so this is what was done. As yet there is no movement, however we understand that work will start at the end of August to open in March. We understand there will be a Bar upstairs and a Restaurant at the end.

Mark also mentioned at this point that the area was short of restaurants for guests and he will be operating a chauffeur driven bus service for guests from the Albion and Sentry Mead who want to go out for Dinner.

A: We are just tidying the area up - from May to November parking is not allowed and it could be considered as a pedestrian zone only. It was noted that a number of elderly blue badge holders use this area . Mark advised that they would still have a loading area and maybe a disabled blue badge area could be considered.

A: We currently have planning permission for a 6 - 8 car parking area , but that is ONLY if the SPA is built.

The audience wished Mark and Gail the very best of luck with the remaining renovations and FBRA thanked them both for attending and informing all attendees of their work.

The Chair advised that improvements of communication are needed between the residents and the parish council. To this end it was suggested that a member of FBRA committee or FBRA members would be welcomed as an observer to the council meetings. Emma Cox, present at the meeting, advised that there was actually a vacancy on the Parish Council if anyone was interested.

The Chair asked if Chris Jarman had any news on the Shelter in the bay, but he had no available updates.

Despite little communication amid other frustrations the Gate Lane Toilets are now open. The Keys were given to the Parish Council last Friday and they are now open, However there are numerous issues still to be discussed with the contractors, these include but are not limited to:

Closing time is currently 1800 hours and it was suggested it should be later in the summer months.

The toilets are currently free, however the council is looking at a fee system QR scheme or money box.

The council have several discussions to clear with contractors and ommissions which do not correspond to the agreed drawings. For further information please make contact with Emma Cox from the Parish Council and also a "Toilet Committee" member.

A full report has been prepared by Huw Jenkins - here attached. Sincere thanks to him and his team for continued dedication and persistence with this project.

In the 16 months since we started we have run 149 SpeedWatch monitoring sessions and checked the speeds of 17,123 vehicles of which 1,102 (6%) were recorded as speeders. A speeder is 10% + 2 = 35 in a 30 zone, 24 in a 20 and 46 in a 40.

It is normal for 20 mph zones to have a higher percentage of Speedwatch speeders, but that doesn't make it okay. The Summers Lane sessions were all conducted during the school pick-up or drop-off times with children walking and cycling along the road which has no pavement. Afton Road (between Middle Road and Tesco) had a small percentage going 46 mph or more - it nevertheless feels fast, noisy and dangerous.

We think we are making a difference but as ever it's difficult to prove it with numbers. The mere sight of the radar device and high-viz jackets causes most drivers to slow down several mph. People can easily ignore speed limit signs although they generally react to us as a human sign.

In the month of June we recorded 67 speeders. 56 received a 1^st letter, 4 received a 2^nd letter and 3 received a police visit because they'd already had 2 letters. 4 of the speeders could not be traced (we failed to correctly record the vehicle or its numberplate). Of the 63 confirmed speeders 87.5% were first timers and 12.5% were second or more. You could extrapolate that 87.5% don't speed again!

Freshwater SpeedWatch has been the only operational team on the Isle of Wight until recently - a new group has started operating in Shorwell which is good news. The police are trying to encourage more groups to be set up.

To date we have monitored roads in Freshwater and Totland but starting in August we will also monitor Bouldnor Road in Yarmouth.

We are always on the lookout for new volunteers. If you know of anyone who would like to help out, please point them to me on freshwaterspeedwatch@gmail.com

The trees are all doing well, apart from 2 which will be investigated under the guidance of a tree expert, including damage to tree trunks by strimmers. In the autumn FBRA will organise the planting of bulbs and will keep everyone posted on progress.

Following last Public Meeting's detailed discussion on the above, Chris Jarman made contact with Southern Water and as a result it was confirmed that the company will provide all households waterbutts free of charge next year.

Whilst this is a welcome development is doesn't go very far in solving the problem. It was noted that during the first day of the summer holiday period nearly the whole of the island's beaches were deemed no go areas due to sewage discharge and red flag postings.

Chris Jarman mentioned that he has been in discussion with Southern Water on this and several other issues for the last 2 years and has established that to "fix" the problem it would need around �900 million spent on the system upgrade and it is a well known fact that Sandown processing plant is currently at "over capacity".

Southern Water are looking at allocating 8-10 million and to this end, water Butt provision is somewhat of a distraction whilst a good idea it certainly is not the answer or goes anywhere near a solution.

Continual discharges all over the island as well as multiple points of failure, recently at the bowls club in Totland, is a daily occurrence particularly at a time of heavy rainfall.

Dealing with an organisation who feel they need to reward their shareholders when 57 billion is needed to be invested in upgrading the systems, roughly the same is paid out to their investors doesn't look like anything is going to change in the future.

The 4 cabins proposed were objected to as it is AONB (area of outstanding natural beauty). FBRA will put in another objection next week. Objections must be in by Friday 4^th August and any prior objections need to be resubmitted. For more information please visit the link below:

Lifeboat Open Day: Will be held on 19^th August 1200 - 1800 hrs. There will not be a FBRA organised BBQ this year for varied reasons.

Parish Hall Project Fund: The Parish Church Council for St Agnes & All Saints have put together a Parish Hall Project Team who hope that the project will see the Parish Hall Complex transformed into " fully functional, safe building with modern facilities." .

A leaflet was provided at the meeting to encourage any residents to drop in to an even on Tuesday 12^th September from 5 - 6.30pm where there will be a short talk and presentation (5.45pm). This is an opportunity for any of the community to meet some of the group who use the hall, see the challenges currently faced, meet the team, share your thoughts/hear the teams thoughts and meet the architect and see if you might also be able to help.

Finally we are making all efforts to be integrated in the community/lifeboat/Parish council and perhaps form a group to share and exchange information.

Karen provided an update for the meeting and sent her apologies for not being able to attend due to work commitments.

Currently we have 190 members with 1 life member and 2 new members in the last quarter.

A reminder to all members that membership renewals run annually and are due in October. Memberships runs from October to October irrespective of the actual date membership is received. Online banking details can be found on the newly updated flyers and standing orders can be made to help with timely renewals. The renewals can be done either online via BACs = details of this is available from the committee or via a paper form which is now available at Orchard Stores, the Beer Bus, Dimbola and the Piano.

A leaflet drop will be planned for September/October to generate new membership interest in FBRA, any volunteers to help with this would be greatly appreciated. Please leave your names with the committee.

Thanks once again is due to all those volunteer distributors your time is appreciated in helping to deliver updates and newsletters - you all do a great job.

Finally , due to the pressures of working I (Karen Aplin) am resigning as membership secretary as of the AGM in October. If anyone is interested in taking over this role please get in touch with Neil and I shall be in touch.

Recent expenditure includes £590 to repair the FBRA notice boards and £1800 for the trees (this will be recouped from Sponsors) and £145 for the plaque.

Litter Picking Board at the Bay: Jacqueline Robertson mentioned that she is in charge of the littler picking board at the bay and if anyone has any recyclable bags , please place them on the board.

Boat Wreck: Chris Jarman asked if anyone had any further information on the wrecked boat at Scratchells Bay as he believed there may also be an oil slick present. No one had any further information, however this should be mentioned to the Environmental Agency.

Conservative Club: Everyone is welcome to join or get in touch as a guest to visit the Conservative Club - it also has a large hall which can be hired out for parties etc,.

Afton Road No Parking Signs: A limited mobility member of the public has given a thank you to FBRA for the no parking signs on Afton Road, saying access is now much easier. They also requested if it was possible to put up more signs.

Meetings and Minutes Much of Freshwater Bay now has Conservation status, which is a welcome recognition of the area's historical and aesthetic importance. The association now has over 190 members and they can recieve the e-mail Newsletter by contacting Paul@stayfreshwaterbay.co.uk New committee members have taken up their posts.For details, click here
Calendar for 2025
Day	Date	Type
Thursday	January 23rd 7pm
Thursday	April 24th 7pm
Thursday	July 24th 7pm
Thursday	October 23rd 7pm	A.G.M.