Major St Leonards sewage leak repair continues and beaches remain shut

Southern Water were first sent to a burst pipe under the cycle path at Bulverhythe beach, Cinque Ports Way on Wednesday night (July 28).

They remained in the area throughout Thursday, but on Friday there was a second serious sewage leak which affected beach huts and the beach.

As a result, the area was cordoned of and closed throughout the weekend. On Tuesday morning (August 2), Hastings Borough Council said Bulverhythe beach will remain closed ‘until further notice’.

The Environment Agency has also advised against swimming at Pelham and St Leonards beaches because of a risk of ‘reduced water quality due to sewage’ the council added.

A spokesman for Hastings Borough Council said: “Southern Water contractors remain working on site at this time, and the beach at Bulverhythe remains closed to enable these works to be completed.

“It is also still advised not to swim at both Pelham and St Leonards’ beaches because of a risk of reduced water quality due to the sewage incident. We encourage the public to check the bathing forecast signage for water quality information, when the incident is over the signage will update automatically and advice against bathing will be lifted.”

In an update at 4.30pm on Monday, Southern Water said: “Repairs to the burst sewer at Bulverhythe Beach, Hastings are well advanced. Final works to further increase the resilience of the repair are being carried out today. We are still working 24/7 to get the repair finalised as quickly as possible. We continue to hold tankers and have extra monitoring on site until we are confident the sewer is working normally.

“Our customer van is in the area again today and our field customer team is engaging with beach hut owners affected by this incident. We are supporting them to ensure their huts are restored to their previous state and we replace any items which have been damaged in this incident. Our customer van is also an information point for the wider community.

“Our priority is to protect service to our customers and safeguard the environment.”