VISITORS who regularly come to Devon could be eligible to join a prospective class action lawsuit targeting South West Water.

The claim, which has been brought by law firm Leigh Day, had around 1,400 claimants earlier last month, and was recently expanded to include other communities in the county.

The original claimants came from Exmouth, Lympstone and Budleigh Salterton, but Leigh Day has recently included Dawlish, Sidmouth and Teignmouth in Devon and Newquay and Penzance in Cornwall.

While residents and businesses make up the claimants in those areas, Leigh Day has stated that those who visit the affected areas regularly could also join the claim if their circumstances match a set of requirements.

The closure of Exmouth beach on two weekends during the peak August season in 2024 due to sewerage sparked the idea for potential legal action by residents and businesses in the town.

“We do not have a specific figure for tourist claimants, as we have not asked clients to identify themselves that way,” a spokesperson for Leigh Day told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“Eligibility also depends on whether someone can show particular harm beyond that suffered by the general public – regular visitors might meet that threshold, but occasional tourists generally would not.”

The firm said it had not fixed an upper limit on the maximum number of communities that could join the action, albeit its focus was not now on expanding that cohort.

“We have not fixed an upper limit,” the firm said.

“If strong evidence shows other areas have suffered comparable harm, we may consider expanding the action, but we are not focusing on that at this stage.”

Nicky Nicholls, who works at Sideshore, an eco-hub in Exmouth, said communities “just want to know that bathing water is safe to swim in”.

“Sewage shouldn’t be impacting people’s ability to use the water and impacting tourism,” she said.

“And one company shouldn’t have this monopoly with the ability to dump sewage, which then destroys other businesses. It shouldn’t be happening.”

A spokesperson for South West Water said: “We are aware of this claim and whilst we are unable to provide a further comment at this time, like all our customers, we care deeply about the quality of our region’s bathing waters and fully understand how important this is to residents, businesses and visitors.”

Ms Nicholls said she did not know any timescales for any potential court case, but stated that a so-called Letter Before Action (LBA) had been sent to the water company to outline the case against it.

It’s understood that South West Water has three months to respond to this letter, which gives it until 6 May 2026, according to the 58-page document sent by Leigh Day.

In a summary of the LBA, it states: “The claimants invite the defendants to admit liability and propose settlement terms; otherwise, proceedings will be issued.”

If SWW does respond but the claimants aren’t satisfied, the LBA states that the next step would be to issue formal court proceedings.