Skip to content

Water company to invest £83m to tackle pollution

Neve Gordon-Farleigh
BBC News, Norfolk
Charné Jones Steffan Aquarone pictured facing towards the camera. He is wearing an orange fluorescent jacket, and PPE including gloves, hard hat and goggles. He is standing outside on a balcony talking to two people from Anglian Water. Both men he is talking to are also dressed in orange fluorescent jackets with the Anglian Water logo on the back, hard hats and goggles. Charné Jones
North Norfolk MP Steffan Aquarone says the investment is the first step in solving the area's "sewage crisis"

A water company has unveiled an £83m plan to combat a coastal area's long-running problems with water pollution.

Anglian Water said it would invest the money in north Norfolk over the next five years and plans include connecting a series of properties to the sewerage system for the first time to prevent storm overflow.

The company has previously revealed it will be investing more than £660m across Norfolk to improve water recycling treatment.

Steffan Aquarone, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk, said: "This investment is a good first step in solving the sewage crisis and will help to reduce sewage spills and increase treatment capacity."

The water company said it will spend £32m to connect properties in Antingham, Barton Turf, Hanworth, Bessingham, Happisburgh and Ludham to the sewerage system for the first time.

A further £4m will be used to reduce combined storm overflow (CSO) spill frequency which has impacted the bathing water in Mundesley, it added.

Part of the money will also go towards reducing the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen in treated water in areas across north Norfolk.

Anglian Water said its business plan would focus on tackling CSOs as they were no longer the right solution for when sewers become overloaded.

Hugh Venables/GEOGRAPH A long strip of beach with the sea to the right of the image. There are rocks acting as flood defences and a pier can be seen in the distance. Hugh Venables/GEOGRAPH
Part of Anglian Water's business plan will see £4m used to reduce combined storm overflow spill frequency impacting Mundesley bathing water

Last year there was an increase in the amount of sewage pumped into rivers and the sea in north Norfolk.

Over 2024 untreated waste water was released in the East of England for almost 500,000 hours, including flowing into the River Stiffkey, near Blakeney, for more than 1,500 hours.

More than 500 hours worth of spills came from Cromer's main sewage works in the North Sea, off the coast of West Runton, and a pipe at West Runton beach had 116 hours of spills during 32 incidents, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

Getty Images A pipe coming from a dark wall which is pouring out water onto the beach. There is a large amount of sewage and debris on the ground. Getty Images
Anglian Water said over the next five years it would be investing more than £660m across Norfolk

The Environment Agency has found the number of water company pollution incidents across England has risen sharply last year.

While Anglian Water was not one of the companies named responsible for 81% of serious incidents, the organisation said it acknowledges it must "do better" on some critical measures of environmental performance.

It said: "We've drastically changed how we operate to address more effectively the unique and complex challenges facing our region, but we knew it was going to take time for this to be reflected in our environmental performance."

Aquarone added he had been campaigning for years to ensure people in his constituency got clean water and have unpolluted oceans.

The water company has been contacted about its plans for the rest of the county.

Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

More on this story
Related internet links