Sewage released into Bexhill and St Leonards water 20 times during past week

Sewage was released last Tuesday morning (January 3) at 11.52am on both beaches, and did not cease until 5.29am on Friday, January 6 – totalling a discharge duration of over 65 hours.

Six discharges in total took place on January 7, with two lasting more than five hours, and this was followed by shorter, but frequent, durations of discharges, on January 8.

Five further sewage releases took place yesterday (January 9), with the longest continuing for five hours, and one discharge has been authorised on the beaches today, totalling four hours.

St Leonards and Bexhill are both frequently used as outfalls for sewage to stop overflow after heavy rainfall.

The incidents were reported on Southern Water’s online ‘Beachbuoy’ tool which informs users of storm release activity near coastal bathing waters.

The company’s website states: “During heavy rain, local sewer networks can struggle to cope with the amount of water entering pipes and storage tanks.

"When they fill up, we use storm overflows to stop homes, businesses and roads from flooding.

"Most storm releases are heavily diluted wastewater – up to 95 per cent is rainwater.

Storm overflows are not manually operated, they work automatically to release excess water, for example after heavy rain has filled the sewers.

These releases are permitted by law and we report all spills to the Environment Agency."

To see the full list of sewage releases in the local area, click here.