Raw sewage was spilled into Newhaven's waterways for 500 hours throughout 2022

There were also another three discharges into the River Ouse Estuary from Fort Road in 2022. All together the town saw 500 hours of sewage spills in the year.

The Environment Agency data shows that in 2022 Southern Water discharged a total of 956 spills for 10,524 hours in the rivers and seas around the Lewes constituency.

The Government allows water companies to discharge raw sewage into rivers, lakes and coastlines following a storm. This includes sewage being pumped into bathing water areas and wildlife habitats. Liberal Democrats in Parliament recently uncovered that water companies breached their sewage permits over 500 times last year, double compared to the previous year.

Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Lewes, Cllr James MacCleary, has called for a ban on these sewage discharges in protected waters, as well as a ban on water company executives being paid multi-million pound bonuses.

Mr MacCleary, who lives in Newhaven, said: "I have been speaking out on the issue of sewage dumping for a while. It is happening everywhere with recent data showing huge releases in Lewes, Ditchling, Alfriston and here in Newhaven. We desperately need firm action from the government but instead they keep letting Southern Water off the hook. I have been supporting calls for a windfall tax on the profits made by water companies that would immediately raise £350 million a year to be invested straight into improving our sewage treatment and disposal.

"I get contacted every week by local people who are outraged about sewage being dumped into our local rivers and seas. Sewage releases have gone up by 30% in Lewes constituency in the last year alone. I don't think I'm alone in being fed up with Conservative excuses on this issue. Enough is enough, we need action now."

Toby Willison, Southern Water’s Director of Environment and Quality, said: “The official Environment Agency data for 2022 shows a fall in overall storm overflow activity and we are already exceeding the government’s expectations for spills per overflow. However, we know this still isn’t good enough and are working extremely hard to drive down storm overflows.

“Following the success of small-scale, innovative nature-based and engineering solutions which slow the flow of surface water into our sewer system, we are now looking to roll these out more widely over the next two years.

“Larger construction projects have also made a big difference, including a new 11km sewer pipe in Brighton, which along with two associated pumping stations and a wastewater treatment works, ensures that the 95 million litres of wastewater from Brighton and the surrounding areas is fully treated.

“Our digital monitors now cover 98.5% of our outfalls, and will hit 100% by this time next year. We will continue to report our progress in a transparent and open way.”

At Lewes, the Ham Lane pumping station released sewage into the Ouse 146 times last year, lasting a total of 2,419 hours. The Lewes figures represent the second highest number of spills in the entire Southern Water area, accounting for 16% of all of the water company’s sewage discharges by duration.

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