A district council has expressed its dissatisfaction with Thames Water amid concerns councillors are getting "too chummy" in meetings with the "sewage dumping" water company.

Thames Water came under scrutiny at a West Oxfordshire District Council meeting on Wednesday. 

A motion was tabled referring to the under fire company which called on the government to "do what it can to put right this wrong".

The council was unanimous in its criticism of Thames Water which has been accused of sewage dumping.

This includes overflow at Witney Sewage Works since December 30, 2023.

But there were disagreements among the councillors over the wording of the motion tabled with some calling for greater emphasis on holding the government to account over the issue.

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Conservative councillor Liam Walker said: "We had a motion today to bring us all together and what we've done is we've taken a highlighter to it and completely ruined it.

"Nothing has changed.

Oxford Mail: Councillor Liam Walker.Councillor Liam Walker.

"We keep having meetings.

"We keep talking to Thames Water.

"Sewage is still being dumped.

"The dumping continues."

Mr Walker added: "I feel like we're all getting a bit too chummy with our friends at Thames Water."

The motion had been proposed and seconded by Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors Alaric Smith and Duncan Enright respectively.

Liberal Democrat county council leader Liz Leffman responded: "I wasn't actually going to speak but there's nothing like hearing from councillor Liam Walker to get me going.

Oxford Mail: Councillor Liz Leffman.Councillor Liz Leffman. (Image: Oxfordshire County Council)

"A task force on its own would be a talking shop.

"Engaging with people who are actually responsible is what this administration is doing with the amended motion and it's doing it with the right people."

Ms Leffman added: "This is a public health issue.

"There are children in Chalbury who used to swim in the River Evenlode.

"I would never recommend any of our children swim in that river now."

Mr Enright added: "We used to bathe safely in our rivers and we can't anymore.

"We know from our lived experience that there are problems we have with our sewage which we never used to."

Oxford Mail: Councillor Duncan Enright.Councillor Duncan Enright. (Image: West Oxfordshire District Council.)

The amendment to the motion was carried with 29 in favour, 15 against and two abstentions.

A final vote on the amended motion resulted in it being passed with all in favour bar one abstention.

Thames Water is a large private UK utility company that is responsible for water supply and waste water treatment in many areas of England and it has a monopoly over the regions it serves.

The company was fined £4 million in November 2021 for a 30-hour discharge of an estimated half a million litres of raw sewage into the Seacourt and Hinksey streams in Oxford in July 2016.

A spokesman said: "We regard all discharges of untreated sewage as unacceptable and are working hard to accelerate work to stop them being necessary across our catchment area."