Eastbourne Council leader responds to MP's claims of raw sewage discharge from building

Mrs Ansell and Cllr Penny di Cara joined Southern Water’s misconnections team to see misconnections work and were updated on progress in finding sewage and wastewater pipes wrongly and illegally connected to surface water drainage.

The MP said she saw a bathroom connected to surface water pipes that go straight into the sea.

She said she had been told by Southern Water and the Environment Agency that misconnections were the reason why the seawater off the town is only graded as ‘Sufficient’.

She said: “All I want is to have Eastbourne’s water graded excellent. I will work in partnership with whoever can help me achieve that. I will also hold those authorities to account if they don’t.

“And this is an important point. The constant misrepresentation on water quality is damaging to our reputation as a visitor destination, it denies local people the confidence to go out and enjoy the water and to fully understand what the issues are."

Mrs Ansell and Cllr di Cara praised the misconnections team, led by Robert Butson, that has already found another misconnection on Grand Parade and others have been discovered dating back to the 1940s.

Cllr di Cara said: “This is great investigative work by the team and brilliant news that such a significant misconnection has come to light.”

She said work to rectify the misconnection was underway.

However, Councillor Stephen Holt, leader of Eastbourne Borough Council refuted the MP’s claims.

He said: “Our MP is clearly trying to fool Eastbourne residents into thinking that Southern Water’s 16,888 sewage dumps into the sea around Eastbourne are not responsible for beach closures, poor water quality and local swimmers having to dodge human faeces in the water.

“She wants us to believe that one misconnection in the town is responsible. Why is she taking the people of Eastbourne for fools? We all know the truth about Southern Water.

“The issue that the MP highlights is being fixed, the facilities in the building are not being used and I understand council officers are waiting for Southern Water to approve the final repairs necessary.

“Despite Southern Waters best efforts, our town remains the number one seafront destination for millions of people and it’s no coincidence that Conde Nast named Eastbourne the best seaside town in the UK and TimeOut selected Eastbourne as the best place to stay in the UK.

“Southern Water was responsible for 16,888 sewage spills in 2022, yet our MP talks repeatedly about misconnections being responsible for this tsunami of human waste polluting our sea water.

“In Eastbourne during last year alone, sewage was being discharged into the sea by Southern Water for a staggering 434 hours.

“My message to our MP is to start holding Southern Water to account for their continual failures and stop pushing this propaganda, no one in Eastbourne is falling for it.”