Bexhill beach warning after sewage discharge into sea

Last night in a tweet, Rother District Council (RDC) said the waste came from the Galley Hill pumping station earlier in the evening.

Southern Water, in a tweet yesterday evening, said it was working with the Environment Agency and the district council to investigate.

RDC said via Twitter: “Please avoid Bexhill beaches and stay out of the sea until further notice.

"There has been a sewage discharge from the Galley Hill pumping station earlier this evening due to a technical issue that has now been resolved. We will issue further updates as soon as possible.”

Southern Water said: “We’re very sorry to say that a significant issues with electrical power at one of our wastewater pumping stations has caused a release into the sea at Bexhill.

“Rother District Council has made the difficult decision to advise the closure of Bexhill and Normans Bay beaches.

“Southern Water and Rother District Council continue to investigate any potential impact on the bathing water quality. Beach and seafront concessions remain open as usual.

“We are liaising closely with the Environment Agency and Rother District Council and providing information to assess the potential impact of this event. We also have teams at the nearby Bexhill and Normans Bay beaches searching for any evidence.

“We are deeply sorry for this incident and understand the seriousness and distress this causes.

“We continue to investigate the root cause and will share this with stakeholders and customers when we can.”

Last year Southern Water was fined a record £90 million for dumping billions of litres of raw sewage into protected waters across a number of years.

Then in November 2021, water companies like Southern Water were given the greenlight by the government to dump raw sewage into protected waterways due to a shortage of lorry drivers.

At the end of July last year, a major leak took place in Bulverhythe, St Leonards, due to a burst pipe under the cycle path at the beach.

Two days later there was a second serious sewage leak which flooded nearby beach huts and affected the beach.

As a result, the area was cordoned off and closed throughout the weekend, and into the early part of the following week.

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