Water company fined £8m for ‘horrendous’ sewage spills

Harlyn beach was hit by sewage 231 times

South West Water had previously pled guilty to 18 offences at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court after an Environment Agency investigation examined what happened at five sites between 2015 and 2021. 

Seventeen of the charges involved illegal sewage discharges, while the remaining charge concerned the company’s failure to take reasonable steps to fix a problem at a sewage pumping station.

The investigation uncovered hundreds of separate spills. At a sewage works near Bodmin, 336 illegal discharges were recorded during the seven years to March 2020, with sewage entering the River Camel. 

River Camel (Image credit: Getty)

The river is protected as a Special Area of Conservation and is home to species including Atlantic salmon, bullhead and otters.

Harlyn beach was also repeatedly affected, with untreated sewage released there 231 times between January 2016 and July 2021.

One incident at Hooe Lake near Plymouth lasted particularly long. Sewage began escaping from the pumping station on 28 August 2020 and continued for 88 hours, taking the discharge through the bank holiday weekend until 1 September. 

The Environment Agency said three of the illegal discharges investigated occurred over bank holiday weekends.

The penalties varied significantly between locations. 

Harlyn resulted in a £2.96m fine and Nanstallon in £2.69m, while the penalties for Polperro, Halvarras, Hooe Lake and Bodmin were £1.12m, £351,000, £216,000 and £202,800 respectively.

The overall amount was reduced by £329,993, with a further £120 victim surcharge added.

Judge says “horrendous” pollution incidents must never happen again

The seriousness of the offences was made clear during sentencing, with Judge Jo Matson describing the pollution as “horrendous” and “very significant”.

South West Water apologised for its past record after the hearing, saying: “We apologise for what happened in the past.”

The company had already faced court over pollution in the region, receiving a fine of more than £2.1m in 2023 after admitting another offence. 

Matson referred to that case when explaining how she approached the latest sentence, noting that she had previously warned that “incidents of pollution by water companies will not be tolerated and must be taken very seriously by these courts”.

She acknowledged that the company had introduced changes since the earlier case and said those measures had been taken into account.

“I have also taken into account the changes that South West Water have made since then,” she said. “Only time will tell if those changes are successful, I certainly hope that will be the case.”

Matson also pointed to the company’s own statement that “one pollution is too many”, saying there could be little argument with that principle.

“It goes without saying that must be the case,” she said. “However, in this case there were hundreds of incidents of sewage spills on to our beaches and into our waterways and sea and untreated sewage gushed through the harbour wall into the harbour at Polperro on a bank holiday weekend.”