Anger in Newquay as locals have had enough of poo floating around the streets | UK | News

There is anger in a beautiful seaside town, where the locals are fed up with poop floating through the streets.

Human faeces, wet wipes and other sewage were left floating outside shops in Newquay, Cornwall as sewers overflowed due to heavy rain.

South West Water (SWW) said it was notified of the incident at 6.30pm on Saturday (October 5) and managed to bring the matter under control by 11.30pm.

However, the utility confirmed that its engineers were called to Cliff Road again the next morning when more sewage flowed onto the sidewalk.

SWW said at the time: “We have a tanker on its way to stop the flooding and clear the blockage so that the sewer can flow freely.

“We are working quickly to resolve this issue and once the flooding has stopped, a full clean-up of the flooded area will be completed.”

The sewage leak along the busy street certainly did not go unnoticed. Many residents of the resort took to social media to express their anger and mock the utility company.

One resident wrote on Facebook: ‘Human feces, wipes and paper were all clogging up the drains, across the road and on the sidewalks this morning.

“No one from the municipality or SWW does anything about it. Drains clogged at street level with wet wipes, paper and human feces. Absolutely disgusting.”

Another joked about SWW’s inability to dump sewage even near the sea, adding: “You think that because South West Water is so close to the sea it will just dump it into the sea ​​would dump.”

South West Water, part of the Exeter-based Pennon Group, regularly dumps sewage into our rivers and seas so it doesn’t end up in people’s homes and businesses when drains become overflowing due to heavy rain.

The legislation stipulates that sewer overflows – which combine domestic sewage with surface water – may only be used in ‘exceptional circumstances’.

In 2021 alone, water companies in England and Wales discharged sewage into rivers and the sea more than 370,000 times. That’s 2.7 million hours of sewage ending up on beaches and riverbanks.

Earlier this year, SWW was rated as having the worst ever record for sewage pollution. It was also rated as “the worst performing company in terms of pollution incidents in the 13-year history of the Environmental Performance Assessment”.

The Environment Agency (EA) report, similar to an Ofsted report for schools or a Care Quality Commission report for health and social care settings, gave the company two stars.

The poor rating for SWW was largely due to the incidents of sewage being dumped legally or illegally into our rivers and sea.

The EA’s report shows that SWW has had one of the worst records in the country for pollution incidents every year for the past thirteen years.

In April 2023, the company appeared in court on a series of charges relating to illegal water discharge activities and breaches of environmental permits at sites in Cornwall and Plymouth between 2015 and 2021. They were fined £2.1 million for the environmental breaches.

A fellow resident also took the mick out of the business after the incident in Newquay Cliff Road. He wrote: “That’s not sewage, that’s crystal clear drinking water from South West Water.”

Another joked: “Southwestwater is the best. I really hope this doesn’t affect next year’s big bonuses for the CEO.”

Another resident summed it all up, saying: “This isn’t good enough with our water rates! South West Water remains an absolute disgrace.”

A spokeswoman for South West Water said: “We removed the blockage and cleared the area at 9pm last night (October 6). We will now carry out further work to establish how this blockage occurred so it does not happen again.”