An east Suffolk town famed for its Blue Flag beaches- and regularly nominated as one of the best places to live - has now received an unwanted accolade as an area with a sewage problem.
Data obtained from the Anglian Water website has revealed that there were five sewage releases from sewers in Southwold in 2022, with a storm tank on The Common releasing the foul waste into the River Blyth on 13 occasions for more than 26 hours.
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Other parts of the town also experienced similar events - including in Marlborough Road where a sewer released waste 61 times for more than 15 hours.
In total, the website has listed more than 150 'storm overflows' across Suffolk, where excess waste and rain water is released into inland waterways and the sea to prevent sewers from being overwhelmed during storms.
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The figures have angered East Suffolk councillor David Beavan, who represents Southwold and said he was concerned about the impact on the beach at the town's pier, which only had its Blue Flag status restored last year after losing it in 2018 due to an extremely high E.coli result.
Blue Flags are awarded by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy and recognise well managed beaches with excellent water quality and environmental education programmes.
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But Cllr Beavan said: "For four years we worked really hard with Anglian Water to get our Blue Flag back last year and we are disappointed that they have let us down by spewing sewage into our harbour thirteen times last year despite only admitting to one occurrence in September.
"Sadly, we can no longer rely on the Environment Agency either as they do not have the manpower to monitor this pollution.
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"It is a devastating blow to our tourism industry as it struggles to recover from the pandemic in the face of a cost of living crisis. We are angry at this failure of government and demand action to stop this dirty practice."
He called on Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey, who is also the environment secretary, to stop the sewage and slammed the 'appalling' lack of Government control of rivers.
He also said water company bosses should not be receiving 'bonuses and handouts' for failing to do their jobs properly.
Ms Coffey is set to announce a 'Plan for Water' which aims to 'make polluters pay' with tougher fines levied on water companies going into a 'water restoration fund'.
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The Government is understood to support lifting the upper cap on penalties for water companies, which would allow unlimited fines.
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Ms Coffey said: “Improving the water quality in our rivers and sea in Suffolk is really important to me.
"That is why I am pleased about the consistently excellent ratings of the beaches in Felixstowe and why I intervened with Anglian Water to improve their Southwold waterworks treatment site, which led to Southwold Denes achieving excellent status and gaining the blue flag.
"As secretary of state, I have been working flat out to create a new Plan for Water, to be published shortly, which will map out the government’s action plan for tackling pollution, toughening up enforcement and unlimited penalties for polluters.
"We also need a good supply of water for farmers to grow crops. Felixstowe Hydrocycle is a great scheme for supplying water for farmers and for wildlife, which I would like to see replicated across the country."
Nobody from Anglian Water was available for comment.
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