NORTH Cornwall’s MP has condemned the news that former South West Water chief executive Susan Davy is set to receive a bonus of more than £250,000.

Ben Maguire, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, has called the payment, amounting to the sum of £270,000, ‘disgusting’ and ‘a slap in the face’ to water customers across the Duchy.

Mr Maguire, who says he has repeatedly challenged South West Water over what he describes as "constant" sewage discharges, service failures, rising bills, and the poor handling of a string of crises, said the bonus sends entirely the wrong message to customers who have endured years of poor performance.

It comes after Cornish Labour MP, Anna Gelderd (South East Cornwall) also spoke out against the news, arguing that ‘people in South East Cornwall should not be paying for the bonus of a former water company CEO who repeatedly failed to deliver for its customers’, as well as penning a letter to Pennon Group chief executive officer Keith Haslett, protesting the bonus.

Commenting on the matter, Mr Maguire said: "To reward Susan Davy with an eyewatering bonus of this size, after she presided over a record of absolute failure is quite frankly disgusting.

"My North Cornwall constituents have dealt with constant sewage pollution, water outages, rising bills and repeated service failures from South West Water. For them, this huge payout is nothing short of a slap in the face.

"South West Water's leadership has been handsomely rewarded, while customers have been left footing the bill. Susan Davy left her post last year after my repeated calls for her to resign over constant failures. It's yet another clear example of a broken water industry, in desperate need of urgent reform, where failure too often seems to come with a hefty cheque attached."