Commissioners resign over sewage treatment plans

Two Isle of Man commissioners have resigned after a vote was passed to build a new sewage treatment works at a plantation in the east of the island.

Tim Kenyon and Stewart Clague have stood down from their positions as local authority members in Garff.

A vote by Garff commissioners in December supported Manx Utilities' plans to build a new sewage treatment facility at Axnfell plantation, but the pair threatened to resign over the matter.

Both Kenyon and Clague said the vote did not reflect the views of "concerned residents" and had called for the board to submit an objection, which it did not.

The facility is to be part of a £40m government scheme to deal with the island's waste and stop raw sewage entering the sea.

Opposing the Axnfell project, Kenyon announced his resignation at a public meeting this week.

He said 130 people had opposed the plans at a requisition meeting in October and the commissioners had received many letters of opposition from residents.

Kenyon said the project was leaving the area with "years of disruption, a blot on their landscape, and sewage pumped into Laxey harbour".

However, a majority of commissioners voted for the plans in December, describing it as "the only achievable means of ending the discharge of raw sewage" into the bay.

Echoing Kenyon, Clague stood down for similar reasons and, fundamentally, the board's "decision not to submit an objection" to the plans.

He described his time with the commissioners as a "privilege" and thanked his former colleagues.

Garff Commissioners says it "regrets" both of the departures, but "recognises and respects the principled basis upon which [the] decision was made".

Following the two resignations, the local authority has put £12,000 into its budget to finance an election.

It is hoped two new commissioners will be appointed in the coming months.

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