Prospective Hartlepool Labour MP hits out at 'disgusting' 883 sewage releases in one year

Jonathan Brash, who will run for MP for Labour in the next general election, spoke out after figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed a recorded increase of over 4,000% in the number of hours of sewage being released in the North East since 2017.

The data also shows sewage was released 883 times in Hartlepool last year at 22 sites, including at the sea and Greatham, Dalton, Char and Hart becks, amounting to 6,917 hours or 288 days.

Mr Brash said: “This is a public health emergency and a disaster for our local economy.

“Hartlepool’s coastline is one of our greatest treasures and for it to be polluted in this way is unforgivable.”

A number of pollution alerts have been issued around the Hartlepool and North East coast in recent weeks.

Mr Brash added: “I played on Seaton beach as a child, my children were there just last week and as MP I would do everything I could to protect our coastline and waterways from these disgusting practices.”

He accused the Conservative government of failing to hold water companies to account and also criticised the town’s MP Jill Mortimer for voting against an amendment to the Environment Bill last year which aimed to legally prevent water companies discharging sewage.

Mrs Mortimer hit back saying: “I didn’t vote to dump sewage into our rivers and seas. I voted to stop everyone in this country having to foot a bill of between £150 and £650 billion to update our 200-year-old sewage system.

"The simple truth is that, despite the protestations and feigned moral outrage of Mr Brash, the Labour Party could have chosen to act on sewerage during its 13 years in power but chose to leave the issue in its ‘too hard’ pile.”

She added the percentage increases were “distorted” as water companies have greatly expanded monitors since 2016 to check the frequency and duration of discharges.

Mrs Mortimer said the Government’s “landmark” Environment Bill would improve water quality and ensure cleaner seas and rivers.

Ninety-nine per cent of Northumbrian Water’s overflows have monitors and the company said discharges are “generally decreasing over time” as it has invested heavily in upgrading the network.

A spokesman said: “We are committed to playing our part in improving our region’s rivers and seas by working with our partners, including through our industry-leading partnership with The Rivers Trust to create the North East Catchments Hub, and with our regulators the Environment Agency.

"32 of our region’s 34 bathing water meet Defra’s top two standards, which is a really positive indicator of the water quality along our beaches.”

An investigation by Channel 4 programme Dispatches found Northumbrian Water was operating a number of sewage outflow pipes without permits, including one at its pumping station in South End, Seaton Carew.

The company said: “They are the result of the handover of the huge network from local authorities and other owners and in some cases very little information was provided to match permits to locations.

"A huge process has been carried out to manually find, inspect and match all storm overflows to relevant permits.”