Our consultation has closed on South West Water's permit applications
Permit Number: 003174/FU/02, 201965, 200124 and 200126
Consultation Closed
We held a public consultation from 4 August until 6 October 2026 to ask for your comments on these permit applications. This consultation is now closed.
Thank you for taking the time to respond to this consultation. We know people care deeply about their local environment, and your views help us make informed decisions that protect people, wildlife and water.
Now our consultation has closed, our permitting team will gather every response received through the online portal, by post, email and at our drop in event. They read every response and group comments into themes. Some responses may contribute to more than one theme.
As we review responses, we consider:
- Whether the issue falls within the Environment Agency's regulatory role or another organisation's responsibilities.
- Whether evidence has been provided to support the comments.
- Whether the response contains new information we do not already hold.
- Whether that information affects our assessment of the application against environmental standards and legal requirements, including impacts on people, wildlife and protected waters.
While we cannot reply to every individual response, we will address the themes raised in our draft decision document. Where comments relate to matters outside our regulatory responsibilities, we will explain this clearly.
We will carry out a second consultation on our draft decision. We do this when we are minded to issue a permit. This gives you the opportunity to review the draft permit and decision document and see how your consultation responses have informed our assessment. You can also provide further comments at this stage.
We assess comments from any further consultation in the same way. If we receive new information that affects our assessment, we will update the draft decision document to reflect it.
We must follow the Regulator's Code, which requires us to support those we regulate to comply with the law and improve their environmental performance. This means we can only refuse a permit where there is evidence that the application does not meet legal, policy or environmental requirements.
If the evidence shows that we cannot issue the permit, we will refuse the application. In these circumstances, there would be no further consultation. South West Water would have the right to appeal our decision.
