Anglian Water blames climate change and historic sewer design for amount of sewage being deposited in River Welland in Stamford

Anglian Water says climate change and historic sewer design is responsible for the amount of sewage being deposited in rivers.

Sewage was dumped into watercourses 247 times over a total of 3,766 hours in the Stamford and Grantham area last year.

A website called ‘Top of the Poops’ reveals sewage was dumped 46 times into the River Welland from an overflow at Bath Row in Stamford for nearly 600 hours and at Hudds Mill, off Uffington Road, sewage was leaked 14 times for a total of 288 hours.

Further downstream, 103 sewage dumps taking 1,324 hours were made into the River Welland at the Deepings Water Recycling Centre.

The reason, according to the water company that serves the Stamford, Bourne and Deepings area, is that heavy rain overwhelms underground pipes that were built during or before the 1980s. These have a release valve - called combined sewer overflows - which release excess water into rivers and the sea to prevent excess water backing up through toilets, drains and manholes.

Lincolnshire county council Richard Cleaver (Ind - Stamford West) said he found the frequency and length of the spillages into rivers ‘worrying’. He is taking up the issue with Anglian Water.

He said: “There is clearly a need for some major infrastructure investment to reduce the number of these incidents - especially in the context of over 400 new homes being built close to Hudds Mill and 1,950 new homes planned to the north of Stamford, including Quarry Farm.”

Rachel Butler, founder of the Welland Rivers Trust, described the situation as ‘frustrating’ and ‘disappointing’ because little action seems to be happening to correct the problem.

“People were expecting this to happen in a decade, not now,” she added.

“We need a much more holistic approach and a better method of catchment to resolve the issue.”

Anne Gayfer, the Green Party candidate for the Stamford and Grantham constituency, said it was “devastatingly, exasperatingly heartbreaking to witness the decimation that has taken place as our rivers and waterways turn into sewers”.

She added: “The number of recent sewage discharges is mind-boggling, and has become ‘business as usual’.”

An Anglian Water spokesperson said: “Storm overflows were originally designed to protect homes and businesses from flooding during heavy rainfall, but we recognise they are no longer the right solution when sewers become overloaded with rainwater.

“We’ve been dealing with combined sewer overflows for years, tackling those which pose an environmental risk and working through the rest.

“Between 2020 and 2025, we are investing more than £200m to reduce storm spills across the East of England and as part of our Get River Positive commitment we have promised that storm overflows will not be the reason for unhealthy rivers or seas in our region by 2030.”

The spokesperson added that schemes are in place to ‘build resilience to wet weather’ and reduce the use of storm overflows.

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