Gillian Keegan gives Southern Water ultimatum over 'hugely concerning' sewage discharge into Chichester Harbour

outhern Water’s Beachbuoy app shows that the water company has been releasing sewage into Chichester Harbour since December 23 – nearly 900 hours.

In a letter to chief executive of Southern Water, Lawrence Gosden, the Chichester MP and education secretary wrote: “Dear Mr Gosden, We are once again seeing significant and prolonged discharges from the Southern Water network into Chichester Harbour; at the time of writing, the outfall at Thornham has been releasing sewage into the harbour for thirty-five consecutive days. This is, to anyone's mind, unacceptable, and all the more disappointing given previous assurances over the progress of Southern Water's network improvement programme and the work of its Storm Overflows Taskforce. I'm therefore writing to you today to demand concrete commitments on the steps being taken, both to end the current discharge, and to minimise potential harm to the surrounding community and wildlife.

"A month of continuous discharges is hugely concerning, but the data currently available leaves unclear the true extent of the problem posed for the Harbour. I therefore request that Southern Water provide an estimate of the quantity of untreated sewage - in litres, rather than hours - that has been released so far into the Harbour. Further, I would like to know what assessment has been made of the impact this has had on the harbour's water quality and surrounding wildlife, and what measures have been implemented to ensure these harms are kept to a minimum. Finally, I know that the primary concern on most residents' minds will be in ensuring that this does not happen again.

"I would therefore like you to detail the steps now being taken by Southern Water to accelerate previous efforts to improve the resilience of the network, particularly in the event of heavy rainfall of the kind we have experienced in past months.

“I am deeply concerned by Southern Water's approach this past month, and for the health of Chichester Harbour for every minute this is allowed to continue. Going forwards, I very much hope that we can see some of the promises made in previous months translate into meaningful improvements for local residents. In the meantime, I look forward to hearing from you on the above points as a matter of urgency. Yours sincerely, Gillian Keegan.”

Chichester MP Gillian Keegan responds following latest 'sewage vote'