Surfers Against Sewage to hold protest at Scarborough South Bay
They're claiming the UK's sewage system is under huge strain
A protest is being held in Scarborough later to highlight water pollution done by sewage.
It is claimed the system is under huge strain due to a growing population and increased frequency of extreme weather events caused by climate change.
Steven Crawford, the Scarborough representative at Surfers Against Sewage, said: "We're all fed up with how bad the water is. It's been impossible not to see all the stories in the media or things that are happening, how upset people are about rivers, the sea, water pollution, run off from farms and all the things that are making our lives a bit worse. It's a chance for you to add your voice to ours.
"We've got persist pollution on this beach and it's classed as poor which is horrendous. We've had everything blamed for it; donkeys, seagulls and a combination storm outfall when you get heavy rain, everything that goes down your loo, your drains and your sink it goes straight into the sea untreated. They're within very, very close boundaries of all the beaches in Scarborough.
"Because it's classed as poor, the lifeguards have decided this year to put the red flags up. Last weekend it was different because there were no flags at all but this time, posters on the beach, a little laminated sign saying 'the water quality's bad for the last few years, you're invited to not go into the water.' The knock-on effect at the moment is very hard to tell but it will not help.
"It means I can't work. I can't do lessons, I can't hire. I can't do a single thing at all and the worst thing was that there was no mitigation. There was no warning. It just went up and I've been trying to find out who's responsible. It's not 100 percent guaranteed but I think it's the RNLI who decided unilaterally without asking or telling anyone else. We understand why they've done it but the way they've done it is really, really, really stupid.
"People at the moment are really, really fed up with it. The thing is you get stories that happen every year and you want to see progress. You want to see things getting better and it's not so people are thinking 'well I've got to speak out, I've got to do something to make myself heard and how fed up I am with it', so hopefully people come down and join us."
It takes place on the South Bay by the slipway from 2pm to 3pm.
Find out more about the protest on the Surfers Against Sewage website.
Yorkshire Water to begin £180m storm overflow reduction plan
Yorkshire Water is investing £180m in reducing discharges from storm overflows in the next two years.
The plan is targeting overflows that discharge the most often or for the most time as the utility looks to reduce its impact on water quality in the region’s rivers. Over 190 overflows have been earmarked for investment as part of the plan and work on the first batch of improvements is already underway.
The investment, partly funded by shareholders, is in addition to the £147m being spent as part of the utility’s current five-year business plan and the work being planned between 2025 and 2030, which will see the company’s largest environmental investment since privatisation.
Nicola Shaw, CEO of Yorkshire Water, said: “We did not act quickly enough to tackle the issue of storm overflows into rivers. Despite the number and duration of discharges from storm overflows in Yorkshire decreasing in 2022 we understand they happen more than our customers would like, and we are determined to tackle this issue and do our bit for river health.
“Tackling overflows, which were designed into the system as a relief valve, is a priority for us, but it is also a significant task. In Yorkshire, we have over 2,200 overflows and we know replumbing the whole of Yorkshire is not a quick fix as it would be both significantly disruptive and costly to customers. But, further investment from our shareholders is helping us tackle this issue.
“We’ve now launched a project that will see £180m spent on storm overflow improvements in the next two years. This will target the overflows we know are operating more frequently and for longer. Our teams are already on the ground working on the first of these overflows and the investment will help to reduce discharges by at least 20%, but in most cases, we'll be going way beyond that and reducing them significantly."
The £180m investment can broadly be split into four different types of work:
• Increasing storage within Yorkshire Water’s wastewater treatment works
• Preventing surface water entering the sewer system
• Reducing infiltration into sewers
• Small changes to the operation of treatment works
Work in these areas will include building additional storage tanks to retain more wastewater, holding it back, so it doesn’t go through overflows, redirecting rainwater away from sewers and into water butts or SUDs, removing water sources that shouldn’t be plumbed in the network and preventing water naturally seeping in and changing how we operate the wider sewer network and pumping stations that could reduce the need for overflows to kick in to action.
Nicola added: “Storm overflows are a priority for us and that’s why we’ve funded these improvements. We’re going beyond the government’s storm overflow reduction plan and we’re already planning our largest ever environmental investment programme between 2025 and 2030, this is only the beginning as we embark on the biggest investment programme since privatisation.”