CAMPAIGNERS boycotting water bills over sewage spills have protested in Margate ahead of long-time boycotter Julie Wassmer’s court showdown against Southern Water.

The crime writer and environmental campaigner has withheld payment for the wastewater part of her bill for over four years.

She gave an impassioned speech at the protest in the Kent town, arguing that the state of water is both a national and an international disgrace.

Ms Wassmer said she intends to argue in court next week that regulation has failed, there is no accountability for poor service and that this, in principle, contravenes Article 6 of the Human Rights Act.

She said: “It cannot be right that in a modern civic society consumers are forced to pay for services which are not being provided at all, or which seriously pollute our seas and waterways and damage our precious environment — while denying us a means of challenging this effectively through the legal system.

“I’d like to see the back of every water company CEO in this country for whom, by the way, the average pay is £1.7 million a year — while our bills have gone up 40 per cent in real terms since privatisation and are set to increase far more.”

Johnbosco Nwogbo, lead campaigner at We Own It, an organisation that campaigns for public ownership of public services, said: “Southern Water dumped sewage for about 304,000 hours in our rivers and seas in 2024.

“Is that what they’re asking Julie to pay for, so they can continue to dump sewage in our rivers and seas?

“They paid out £2.3 billion in dividends to their shareholders since the water company was privatised — it that what they’re asking Julie to pay for?”

Ms Wassmer’s case is at Canterbury County Court on Thursday March 26 at 10am.