Sewage works upgrade decades late, says campaigner

A Surrey campaigner has expressed hope that a Thames Water project will reduce river pollution and sewage spills.

But Simon Collins, trustee of River Mole River Watch, added the work by the water company should have been done "decades ago".

It comes as Thames Water said it had completed a £26.4m upgrade to Burstow sewage treatment works, which it claimed will "address historical issues".

Collins told BBC News that the nearby Burstow stream was one of the most polluted in the area.

"It suffers a great deal from the sewage treatment works just upstream," he said.

"There's very little life in it."

Collins, from Reigate, added the site had "performed poorly for decades", which he blamed on a "lack of investment".

He said more than 1,200 hours of untreated sewage had been discharged from the Burstow works into the stream on average each year since 2019.

Thames Water said improvements at the site - which it called part of its biggest upgrade programme in 150 years - would increase capacity, enhance reliability and improve the quality of effluent discharged into the River Mole.

Collins said tests by River Mole River Watch had shown that upgrades at other nearby Thames Water sites had not improved the quality of treated effluent going into that stream.

"In fact... [it] seems to be just as bad as it was before," he said.

He added the group would "reserve judgement" on the latest upgrades at Burstow until further tests.

Tess Fayers, director of waste and bioresources at Thames Water, told BBC News the company was spending £6bn upgrading its sewage network over the next five years.

She added that pollution in local rivers was also influenced by runoff from agriculture and roads.

"We're only one factor into a melting pot of what's happening in our rivers," she said.

Collins said the situation had improved recently.

"I wouldn't say it's perfect, but it's a lot better," she said.

"But everything seems to be delayed and very slow.

"What people want is much faster action.

"We're all paying for water company failures over many, many years and... the river is also paying for it in terms of the death of wildlife."

Thames Water was handed a £122.7m fine in May last year - the biggest ever issued by industry regulator Ofwat - for breaching rules on sewage spills and shareholder payouts.

In June, the government objected to a proposed rescue deal for Thames Water, which brought the firm a step closer to a form of nationalisation.

The water company - the UK's largest - has a debt pile of nearly £20bn.

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