Sewage spills ‘have reduced by around 55 per cent’ say Severn Trent

New data has revealed the huge scale of sewage discharges into the River Severn at the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.

Seven Trent Water has confirmed that it plans to spend £10 million in the Coalport area over the next five years in response to questions from the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A spokesperson for Seven Trent Water said: “During the next five years we have a plan to invest further into network improvements in Ironbridge. £10m of investment in the Coalport area will reduce spills and protect the environment.

“We will also be investigating solutions for our Bathing Waters programme and because of the requirements associated with being in a UNESCO World Heritage site and the history of mining and flooding, the delivery of the schemes will have significant complexities to manage, and so we’re starting with detailed surveying and investigations work.”

David Tooley, Local Democracy Reporter, has been out to Coalbrookedale, The Wharfage and Coalport to track down the sites where there have been many of hours worth of storm overflow discharges into the River Severn.

Behind the stunning beauty of The Gorge UNESCO World Heritage Site, as tourists and locals alike wander around the area, just a few feet away are sites where water from sewers and storm drains mix and flood straight into the river.

The Dale End Pumping Station in the area of the Dale End car park is a storm discharge site at Lyde Brook and data out this month from the Environment Agency shows there was more than 109 hours of discharges into the water in 2024.

The river is dotted with sites where many hours of discharges are recorded as going into the river. Seven Trent Water says it has increased the number of sites where the discharges are recorded.

They include a site at the giant Coalport Sewage Treatment works where 53 spills totalling 333 and a half hours of spills were recorded.

More than 102 hours worth of spills were recorded at a combined overflow site at Ironbridge Wharfage, where there are other sites also recorded as spilling many hours worth of spills.

A site recorded as the Ironbridge (shaft) combined storm overflow there were 65 spills totalling 358 hours 39minutes and two seconds of spills.

Severn Trent’s business plan for the next five years was approved by water regulator Ofwat in December 2024.

It says more than £2 billion will be spent on improving river health, aiming to prevent spills from storm overflows across its region.

Severn Trent announced £470 million of investment for Shropshire and this £10million is a part of that. Earlier this month it announced works to improve Coton Hill’s sewer system and flood prevention in Shrewsbury.

For Shropshire environmental campaigner The Rev Paul Cawthorne said: “It’s a complete dog’s breakfast and, as Feargal Sharkey rightly said, it feels like we’ve been conned.

“It needs far more attention in Shelton and Coventry Severn Trent offices on Shropshire people and the health of the river Severn than placating greedy shareholder companies.

“That money could have solved a lot of the problems listed above, couldn’t it? Why don’t the shareholders now hand some of it back to help clean up the mess their team has made? I wrote and asked them but of course never even got the courtesy of a reply.

“Let’s get some perspective back into the sewage company’s management and into the fatcat companies in air-conditioned offices fuelling the changing climate and more intense rainfall about what’s important in life, shall we. That’s my mission for 2025.”

David Tooley, Local Democracy Reporter asked Telford politicians what they are doing to hold Severn Trent Water to account over the pollution it is responsible for.

Councillor Carolyn Healy (Labour, Ironbridge Gorge), Telford & Wrekin Council’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, Planning and Sustainability, said the authority has “long been championing the need to clean up the River Severn and stop ongoing sewage discharges which are unacceptable.

“The council supported the recent classification of bathing water status as this requires the Environment Agency to undertake weekly testing of water quality and provide details of how they will clean up the river. We look forward to reviewing those plans.

“The council has continued to hold Severn Trent Water and the Environment Agency to account and bought the matter to Environment Scrutiny Committee in 2024 while organising meetings with residents to provide opportunity to ask questions of those who are responsible and hear resident concerns first hand.

“We need immediate action that includes a plan to upgrade aging infrastructure while improving the management of storm water to protect the community and environment.”

Shaun Davies, the Telford MP, councillor, and former long term leader of the Labour-run council said these “ongoing sewage discharges in our local water systems are unacceptable.

“Severn Trent must be held accountable, and the Environment Agency be robust with the powers they now have.

“We need full transparency on the frequency of these discharges. This issue stems from chronic underinvestment where money was paid out in bonuses and not spent on improving in our water infrastructure. It’s time to change this.”

Mr Davies added that he will be seeking “immediate action” to prevent further discharges, including updates on upgrading infrastructure, improving stormwater management, and ensuring full compliance with environmental regulations.

“Long-term investment is crucial to protecting our communities and environment,” he said.

“Severn Trent Water needs to step up its efforts, and if they fail to do so, they must face the full consequences of the laws the new Government has brought in that hold water company executives criminally liable.”

The water company spokesperson said that from January to March 2025, spills spills across its region “have reduced by around 55 per cent compared to the same period in 2024.

“Looking ahead, we expect the average number of spills to fall by over 25 per cent to reach an average of 18 by December 2025 because of this work.

“We’re now going even further by delivering an extra 600 projects by the autumn, which include installing new storage tanks to capture and store water, to adding flap valves to prevent flooding when river levels rise.”

Severn Trent Water says there was “another record year of rain” and a hike in “extreme weather events in 2024” but without prevention work the figures might have been worse.

A spokesperson for the water company said: “With another record year of rain and a hike in extreme weather events in 2024, the work completed last year to make improvements to storm overflows is estimated to have resulted in thousands of spills being prevented across the region.”

But they add they they have to go “further and faster to reduce spills from storm overflows” and is investing in it.

Pic: David Tooley LDRS