Time to protest over water charges?

South West water has got a monopoly and reader is aghast at annual bill increase of 9.7 per cent.

This week I received in the post my water rate bill for the coming year,

I was expecting a modest rise of about 5.1 per cent - this is what South West Water had announced on the TV, in the papers and on their website. However, to my utter amazement, my water bill has gone up by 9.7 per cent.

This is more that twice the rate of inflation. My water bill is now more than �922 per year.

I don’t live in a big, fancy house; it’s a small semi. How can South West Water justify an increase of more than �82 in one year?

In a few weeks, they will once again announce record profits, the CEO will get his usual big bonus and all the share holders will be rubbing their hands together at the wonderful dividends from their share and we will be paying for it.

If we do nothing about this now, next year will be worse and soon we will be paying more for water than we pay in council tax.

I say we should all write to our MP, complain to Ofwat and complain to South West Water. They might get the message.

Lewis Stone

Axminster