Sussex MPs write to Southern Water over 'unacceptable' sewage dumps

Sewage has been pumped into the sea along the Sussex coast at 17 beaches in the past 72 hours.

In some cases the discharge lasted for as long as five hours.

The incidents have sparked outrage in communities across the county and a number of Sussex MPs have now written to Southern Water and the Environment Agency demanding waterways and the coast are ‘respected and protected’.

Huw Merriman (MP for Bexhill and Battle), Maria Caulfield (MP for Lewes), Nus Ghani (MP for Wealden), Mims Davies (MP for Mid Sussex), Gillian Keegan (MP for Chichester), Nick Gibb (MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton), Sally-Ann Hart (MP for Hastings and Rye), Caroline Ansell (MP for Eastbourne), Andrew Griffith (MP for Arundel and South Downs), Henry Smith (MP for Crawley) and Tim Loughton (MP for East Worthing and Shoreham) all signed off on the letter.

In the letter, the MPs state: “Once again, the rivers and coastline across Sussex are being blighted by the discharge of sewage”.

They added: “In addition to the obvious environmental and community impact, the closure of popular beaches and restrictions on inland waterways causes financial loss to the numerous businesses who rely on our beaches and rivers.”

Pointing to new legislation which puts a duty on water authorities to take action to eradicate sewage discharges, the MPs said: “We were pleased to support a Conservative amendment to the Environment Bill which, after decades of inaction by Governments of all political shades, for the first time ever, puts a statutory obligation to eradicate this practice.”

The MPs are now seeking an urgent meeting in parliament with both organisations ‘in order to get an action plan and timeline’ for this duty to be delivered.

In addition to the meeting, the MPs demanded details of each and every discharge across their constituencies and the role played by the Sussex Resilience Forum in delivering emergency action between local authorities and agencies.

The MPs are due to be separately meeting with representatives of the LRF to assess its capacity to coordinate responses to emergency events.

In October 2021, a number of the same MPs voted to allow water companies like Southern Water to pump sewage into the sea.

Andrew Griffith, Gillian Keegan, Nick Gibb, Mims Davies, Maria Caulfield, Nus Ghani and Henry Smith all voted with the government to block an attempt by the House of Lords to toughen up the approach discharging sewage.