The residents of two villages near Abergavenny and Wrexham today won a High Court ruling that they should have sewers installed near their homes for the first time.
Earlier this month, Welsh Water asked Harrison J to quash the Welsh Environment Agency’s decision that it must install public sewers in Llantilio Pertholey, near Abergavenny, and Coedpoeth, Wrexham, at a projected cost of up to £330,000 over a period of 60 years.
The company claimed that its alternative solution to problems caused by the existing cesspools would cost less than £220,000 over the same period, and save to up £130,000 on initial capital expenses.
However, rejecting the company’s challenge, and upholding the decision that the sewers should be installed, Harrison J today ruled that the agency’s “cesspool policy” had been properly applied.
He said: “There is no dispute, nor could there be, that the agency’s cesspool policy, generally favouring public sewers over cesspools, is lawful. The point in issue is whether its application of the policy in this case was lawful.
“I can understand Welsh Water’s suspicions from the terms of the decision letter that the agency was simply applying its policy in an inflexible way. The paragraphs of the decision letter dealing with the issue of cesspools are worded virtually identically in both… decision letters.
“That gives rise to the suspicion that it is being trotted out in each case regardless of the circumstances. That, however, is an over-simplification of the matter. It is inevitable that general points about cesspools derived from the agency’s policy will need to be referred to in the decision letter.”
Adding that the similarity in treatment of the villages in the decision letter resulted from the similarity in the circumstances of both cases, he continued: “Overall, although I understand Welsh Water’s concern over the application of the agency’s cesspool policy, I am not persuaded that the agency has applied the policy inflexibly without regard to the individual circumstances of the cases.”
R (on the application of Dwr Cymru Cyfyngedig) v Environment Agency of Wales Queen’s Bench Division (Harrison J) 28 February 2003.
References: PLS News 28/2/03
