Bexhill beach branded a 'no-go area' following discovery of sewage waste

John and Ann Packer were on a morning stroll on the beach on Friday morning (August 25) when they found the waste.

Sewage was also discharged into the sea at Bexhill and St Leonards on four occasions over the Bank Holiday weekend, it has been revealed.

John said: “It is horrendous. We contacted Southern Water who said they would have a team down to clear up within two hours. We, as well as others, were walking along the water’s edge with dogs and kids paddling. It is horrendous to think what they have been exposed to.

"The rocks exposed at low tide at Bexhill are barren, with virtually no seaweed or sea-life. This had never really occurred to me before, as we have only lived here for two years. But a trip to Eastbourne, or Cornwall, where we were recently shows what rocks should look like, covered in seaweed and full of life. It is now clear why the difference.

“In this day and age, how can we have a beach on the British coast that is effectively a no-go area?

“We have a water company that is not prepared to invest in it’s infrastructure, and a government that is not prepared to enforce the regulations that already exist.”

According to Southern Water’s Beachbuoy system, which records storm overflows, there were sewage discharges between 11.55pm on Friday to 2.54pm on Saturday (August 26).

There were three further discharges on Saturday, between 3.13pm and 3.21pm, then from 4.21pm to 4.30pm and between 4.58pm and 5.04pm.

Last October, Bexhill and Battle MP, Huw Merriman, and Hastings and Rye MP, Sally-Ann Hart, raised the issue of sewage outflows in Bexhill and St Leonards during a debate in Parliament.

Recently, members of the Hastings-based Clean Water Action Group and Hastings and St Leonards Extinction Rebellion staged a protest on toilets set up on the beach by Goat Ledge Café, St Leonards, to demonstrate against what they said was repeated discharges of raw sewage into the sea.

Campaigners said raw sewage was released into the sea in Bexhill 96 times in 2022.

A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “We take water quality and the cleanliness of beaches very seriously and after being alerted to debris being found at Bexhill beach by a customer we carried out an investigation to find the source.

“Our teams discovered that debris found by the customer was located next to a private outfall.

“We understand the wider concerns about storm overflows and the health of our river and seas and we’re committed to playing our part in improving them through reducing them through nature-based and engineering solutions.

“We’re also investing £3bn in our network between 2020 and 2025 to improve our environmental performance.

“To stop homes, schools and businesses from flooding, our nation’s network of storm overflows act as a release value to temporarily relieve this pressure, allowing excess flows, typically made up of up to 95 per cent rainwater, to enter rivers and the sea. This is permitted by the Environment Agency.  

“To be transparent in our use of storm overflows we use our Beachbuoy system to display near real-time storm release activity in our coastal bathing areas. Beachbuoy does not provide any safety or water quality recommendations.

“Although storm overflows are a fundamental design function of our network, we’re committed to reducing the use of them. We’re investing £3 billion (around £1,500 per household) to increase our wastewater treatment and storage capacity, and introduce nature-based solutions to divert rainwater away from the sewer system and back into the environment.”