Hastings sewage leak: Bulverhythe beach closed after pipe breaks

A beach has been closed due to a "serious" sewage leak.

Southern Water said repairs to the large sewage pipe, which burst on Wednesday, will continue into the weekend at Bulverhythe beach, Hastings.

On Friday morning it turned on a pumping station to "prevent customers from getting flooded", which caused the pipe to leak for a second time.

Hastings Borough Council said it expected restrictions to be put in place for other beaches in the area.

Kevin Boorman from the council said he was alerted about the spill in the early hours of Friday morning.

"We've got about 300 beach huts there. In fact the sewage leak is right in the middle of the access road," he said.

"We believe that a number of beach huts may actually be flooded by this raw sewage."

Dominic Hallett, Southern Water's operational control manager, said repair work is being carried out "around the clock" and specialist repair contractors are being brought in.

Owners of flooded beach huts are being contacted by the water firm, which pledged to restore the huts to their previous state and replace damaged items.

A beach clean up is also taking place throughout Friday afternoon.

Mr Hallett said it was too early to say what had caused the pipe to burst on Wednesday, or how much sewage had been spilled so far.

An Environment Agency spokeswoman said it was investigating the leak and "our team is assessing the impact of the incident on the area".

In July Southern Water was fined a record £90m for deliberately dumping raw sewage into the sea at 17 sites.

The company admitted nearly 7,000 illegal spills between 2010 and 2015.

It has also been ranked by the Environment Agency as among the worst performing water companies for pollution incidents.

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