WESSEX Water has defended six figure bonuses paid to four senior executives following an attack by a district councillor.

Cllr Andy Sully, executive member for environmental services on Somerset West and Taunton Council, slammed the "eye-watering" extra payments.

Instead he wants to see the money invested in fixing leaking pipes in the network as the country faces potentially more frequent summer droughts.

Cllr Sully said: “It is outrageous that water company bosses reward themselves with these bonuses despite not even bothering to fix leaks.

"The worst part is Ministers are just letting water firms get away with scandal after scandal and residents in our area are sick of it.

"These are the very same water companies which pollute our local rivers with disgusting sewage, harming animals and people swimming in them.

"It is time someone stood up to these companies and demanded action.

"That should start with fixing these leaks, and then once and for all ending the sewage pumping into waterways.”

Records show bonus payments for that Wessex senior executives last year were Colin Skellett £189,500 (who personally declined to accept a payment above £168,000); Andy Pymer £153,000; John Thompson £161,445 (discretionary increase from £161,445 to £165,000); and Mohammed Saddiq £165,000.

A Wessex Water spokesperson said senior executive pay is set by an independent remuneration committee of shareholder representatives and independent non-executive directors.

The amount is linked to company performance, in particular customer service and environmental performance.

The spokesperson added: "Wessex Water consistently leads the industry for customer service and environmental performance and, through significant investment since privatisation, leakage has been halved thanks to our expert leak detection and repair teams.

“We fix more than 1,200 leaks every month, often the same day as they're reported, and around a quarter of these are on customers’ private pipes that we repair free of charge. More than 90 per cent of those are fixed within a day.

“We are investing record amounts on replacing ageing pipes on our network, leading to a near 11 per cent reduction in leakage in the year 2021-22.”

Around 63.3million litres of water is lost per day in the Wessex Water region through leaks in customer pipes – which accounts for around a quarter - and the main network.

Reduction in leakage went down by 15 per cent between 2017/18 and 2020/21.