Sewage dumping at bathing spots up nearly 50pc in a year

Sewage spills in bathing spots have risen by nearly 50 per cent in the space of a year, analysis shows.

There were 31,000 sewage discharges across the UK’s designated bathing water sites in 2023, the equivalent to 228,000 hours.

Analysis by the Liberal Democrats of new Environment Agency data found sewage was dumped at bathing spots 47 per cent more last year than it was in 2022.

The database scrutinised by Sir Ed Davey’s party was published last week and showed sewage spills rose to a record high last year as the number of releases topped more than 477,000 over four million hours nationwide – a rise of almost 60 per cent.

The worst affected bathing area was in Allonby, a seaside village in Cumbria, where more than 4,500 hours’ worth of sewage was dumped by United Utilities.

This was followed by Haverigg, also in Cumbria and where the same firm dumped 3,600 hours of sewage, and Middleton-on-Sea, West Sussex, where around 3,500 hours’ worth of sewage were dumped by Southern Water.

The Liberal Democrats said United Utilities was the worst offending company overall, with more than 10,000 spills over 76,259 hours, while South West Water was responsible for 8,500 spills across 59,000 hours.

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ environment spokesman, said: “Water companies are committing environmental vandalism and this Conservative government is letting them get away with it.

“As these firms and their execs take home millions, people looking to enjoy our beautiful beaches and rivers are seeing them infested with filthy sewage.

“Water companies must be laughing at us. These supposedly protected sites are nothing of the sort.

“Instead, this Conservative government has declared it open season for polluting firms to dump their filth into them.

“This national scandal cannot be allowed to continue for a moment longer.”

Mr Farron went on to urge Rishi Sunak to take “urgent” action on polluting firms, including an investigation by Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) scientists into the impact of sewage levels on human health.

Sir Ed, the Liberal Democrat leader, has pledged to abolish the water regulator Ofwat and introduce “a proper watchdog with real teeth”.

It comes after Oxford rower Leonard Jenkins complained of an outbreak of E.coli in his team in the run-up to losing the Boat Race on Saturday, saying it was “not ideal to have so much poo in the water”.

The Environment Agency was accused of being an apologist for water companies in the wake of last week’s figures after it said the record number of spills was because of wet weather.

Helen Wakeham, the agency’s director of water, said that while the sewage spill data were “disappointing”, it was “sadly not surprising” and the system was working as intended to stop sewage backing up into people’s homes.

But Dave Throup, a former agency boss, said it was “very sad to see [the] Environment Agency acting as an apologist for the water industry”, while Philip Dunne, the chairman of the environment audit committee, said the agency had often been “too indulgent” of water firms.

The sewage crisis has become a major political issue in the past couple of years, with Labour launching personalised attack adverts against Tory MPs who rejected their motion proposing tougher measures on water bosses, including automatic fines for sewage dumping.

It has also become a key focus for Liberal Democrats, who have been campaigning heavily on water pollution in traditional Conservative Party heartlands and have also plastered attacks on the Tories on the issue across local and national campaign literature.

The Telegraph has campaigned for tougher measures to tackle storm overflows, which are the product of heavy rain causing raw effluent to flow out of the Victorian-built sewage system.

A government spokesman said: “We have been clear that the volume of sewage discharged into our waters is completely unacceptable and water companies need to clean up their act fast.

“We are already taking tough action to hold them to account, including demanding record levels of fast-tracked investment, ensuring a 100 per cent monitoring of storm overflows, a quadrupling of water company inspections and are currently consulting on a ban on water bosses’ bonuses, when criminal breaches have occurred.”

Sources at the Department for Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs noted fines of more than £150 million against water companies had been secured since 2015.

Mark Garth, director of wastewater services at United Utilities, noted 2023 was one of the wettest years on record in the North West but said he understood public concern and that his company was now monitoring all regional storm overflows for the first time.

John Penicud, director for wastewater operations at Southern Water, said slashing the number of sewage spills “is top priority for us and our customers”, pointing to a new £1.5 billion storm overflow reduction plan.

Pennon Group, which owns South West Water, has previously said one sewage spillage was “one too many”.