DEVON County Council’s member for water quality has responded to South West Water’s guilty plea to supplying water unfit for human consumption after a parasitic outbreak.

Councillor Paul Arnott, said: ‘The fact that South West Water has pleaded guilty to supplying water unfit for human consumption is extremely serious.

‘That failure of responsibility has damaged public trust and shows why stronger reform of our water system is urgently needed.

‘Safe, reliable water is a priority for this council. Devon County Council will be unveiling a new pan‑Devon water report this year, and we are planning a major water summit in the autumn to bring together all stakeholders and look for innovative solutions.

‘We need to explore bold ideas, such as the potential for a Devon Water Authority that would put the needs of our communities first’.

South West Water pleaded guilty at Exeter Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, March 4.

Speaking after the hearing, a spokesperson for South West Water issued the following statement: ‘We want to reiterate our full and unreserved apology for the impact of the incident in the Brixham area in 2024.

‘We have co-operated fully with the Drinking Water Inspectorate throughout its investigations. Today is another stage of this legal process which we will continue to support.

‘This was an unprecedented, albeit thankfully isolated and rare event.

‘We have continued to work closely with the rest of the sector to prevent this from happening again.

‘Damage caused to our assets on third party land is serious and we want tougher regulation in place to make sure that critical national infrastructure assets are protected at all times.

‘We had 800 people supporting the 2,500 homes affected by the outbreak.

‘Our teams, including engineers and scientists, worked 24 hours a day to clean thousands of metres of pipework and restore the safe supply of water.

‘SWW delivered a number of interventions; including cleaning and flushing the network almost 30 times, ‘ice pigging’, and the installation of specialised filters and ultra-violet treatment systems.

‘We have worked hard within the local communities to try to put this right.

‘This includes working with the English Rivera BID company to boost the local economy and restore trust in the Brixham area, where we invested £1.2m in a Marketing Recovery Fund’.