Environment Secretary visits wastewater treatment plant in Eastbourne amid storm overflow concerns

Ms Coffey toured the treatment works at Harbour Reach with Mrs Ansell and met with Southern Water chief executive Lawrence Gosden and deputy director at the Environment Agency Nick Gray.

The group discussed how Southern Water is meeting new environmental laws and regulations, which includes ending the use of storm overflows and tackling misconnections - all with the aim of improving the town’s seawater.

Mr Gosden explained that sewage treatment only began in Eastbourne in the 1990s following Southern Water building the treatment site, with water quality improving dramatically since, according to the MP.

The Southern Water chief executive also said Eastbourne's treatment works have six times the capacity to process the sewage produced by the town, but the issue is the sewer system combines rain water and sewage together and in periods of high rainfall this can sometimes exceed processing capacity and a storm overflow will be triggered. If the storm overflow was not used, sewage would end up in homes, gardens, schools and hospitals, the MP added.

Mrs Ansell said the solution will come from upgrades in infrastructure and methods to slow the surge of rainwater entering sewers during storms with £8bn of investment planned.

She added: “I would like to thank the secretary of state for visiting our town to see what work is being undertaken - following new government legislation – to improve our seawater.

“This is a complex issue that will take time and money to sort out but it is led by a government committed to doing so and with tough legislation to back it up.

“Southern Water needs to improve how it handles sewage in times of heavy rain and ensure it doesn’t end up in our seas and it outlined its plan to myself and the minister.”

She added: “There is much to do to solve all these issues and I will continue to keep up the pressure on Southern Water and other interested parties to see real improvements.”

A Southern Water spokesperson said the wastewater treatment works was completed in 1997 and until then all of Eastbourne's sewage was released untreated.