Southern Water discharged sewage in the Lewes District for almost 6,000 hours last year

At Lewes, the Ham Lane pumping station released sewage into the Ouse 243 times last year, lasting a total of 4830.64 hours. The Lewes figures represent the second highest number of spills in the entire Southern Water area.

Sewage was released into Seaford Bay at Newhaven main CSO 138 times, for 1040.91 hours.

Director for Wastewater Operations, John Penicud, said: “Slashing the number of storm releases is top priority for us - and our customers. Last November we announced our £1.5 billion storm overflow reduction plan which will combine innovative engineering with nature-based solutions.

“The past 18 months have been the rainiest since records began. The ground is utterly waterlogged in many areas, inundating our own sewers and customers’ drains and sewers.

“We’re extensively relining sewers, to keep sewage in and rainwater out, and our storm release reduction pilot schemes have already proved that nature-based systems can have a real impact.”

Lewes MP Maria Caulfield said: “The situation is clearly unacceptable, and both the government and I have made that clear to the water companies.

“This issue dates back to Victorian times when most of our sewer system was built, during rainfall the rainwater causes the system to overflow into the rivers rather than backing up into people’s homes. This government is the first to act on this, in 2010 7% of these overflows were monitored and it is now 100%.

“The government is also overseeing the largest infrastructure programme in water company history, with £60 billion of capital investment to address the issue of storm overflows.”

Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Lewes, 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.

James said: “These figures are a damning verdict on the government’s failure to stop Southern Water from dumping sewage into our waterways.

“I know that local people are furious that our favourite swimming places and precious wildlife habitats have become poisoned with raw sewage. The Conservative government just doesn't seem to care.

“It's time Maria Caulfield’s government got tough with Southern Water. They are raking in massive profits, all whilst destroying the environment. Frankly, the whole thing stinks.”

In 2022, Southern Water discharged raw sewage into the English Channel from Newhaven 86 times, and another three discharges into the River Ouse Estuary from Fort Road. All together in 2022 the town saw 500 hours of sewage spills in Newhaven.

The Environment Agency data shows that Southern Water discharged a total of 956 spills for 10,524 hours in the rivers and seas around the Lewes constituency in 2022. At Lewes, the Ham Lane pumping station released sewage into the Ouse 146 times, lasting a total of 2,419 hours.

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.