Yorkshire Water vows to cut sewage overflow into Scarborough sea

The boss of Yorkshire Water has pledged to drastically reduce the number of times it pumps sewage into the sea at Scarborough.

According to data gathered by Surfers Against Sewage, the water company discharged sewage 72 times between March and September 2023.

The firm said the waste water was released on days when it was raining.

CEO Nicola Shaw said she hoped for waste water to overflow into the sea twice a year, at most, by 2030.

Releasing sewage into rivers and seas is allowed in the UK to prevent pipe systems becoming overwhelmed - but only during rainy periods.

Waste water discharged on dry days, known as "dry spilling", is banned because it can lead to higher concentrations of sewage.

Each time sewage is discharged, an alert is issued on Surfers Against Sewage's Safer Seas and Rivers Service (SSRS) app.

Warnings from the app are based on Yorkshire Water's official data, a company spokesman confirmed.

According to the SSRS app, there were 13 alerts between 13 March and 18 September 2023 in Scarborough's South Bay, in which the warnings read: "There has been a sewage discharge from a Yorkshire Water sewage overflow at this location".

In North Bay, there were 59 in roughly the same period, six of which reported a "pollution risk alert" issued by the Environment Agency (EA).

Meanwhile in the neighbouring seaside resort of Filey, there were 18 alerts between 18 June to 27 September 2023.

Six of those reported a sewage discharge from the water company's overflow site while 12 were EA-issued pollution risk alerts.

Ms Shaw said the firm would be investing £7.8bn between 2025 and 2030 to fund environmental and infrastructure improvements across Yorkshire, some of which would go towards reducing sewage output.

However, she did not disclose how much money would be spent on tackling the issue.

"The Scarborough investment is all going to happen from now through to 2026. So we should see a big change in Scarborough in that period.

"It has been incredibly wet with large storms and it's on those big storm days that we have seen the difficulties in Scarborough this year."

She warned of a rise in household bills to pay for upgrade works across the region, with customers having to pay an extra £80 a year from 2025 onwards.

Ms Shaw also said the company was working with EA and local authorities along the Yorkshire coast to reduce sewage output.

"It should be less than two a year and hopefully it will be non-dependant on the weather conditions. So that's a huge reduction," she added.

Her comments come after Yorkshire Water was ordered to pay back £20m to customers through lower bills after missing key targets.

The company was among a list of water firms, which industry regulator Ofwat said were "falling short" on performance measures around leakages, supply and reducing pollution.

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