GREEN Party councillors and activists have called on Southern Water to stop releasing sewage into the rivers and the sea.

Between 2010 and 2015, the water company dumped untreated sewage on more than 10,000 occasions at 17 sites examined by the Environment Agency, with 78 per cent of these being illegal.

The company was fined a record £90 million in July last year for illegally discharging 21 billion litres of raw sewage.

The Brighton and Hove Green Party said that, while Southern Water is proposing to reduce sewage releases by 80 per cent by 2030, this does not go far enough.

A petition, launched with a stall on Rottingdean beach on Saturday, has already reached more than 600 signatures and calls for a commitment to ending the dumps, as well as demanding further funding for projects that reduce flooding.

Councillor Steve Davis, who co-chairs the city council's environment, transport and sustainability committee, said: “Southern Water has been found repeatedly dumping sewage in our seas. This doesn’t just damage our precious marine wildlife, it harms human health too.

“We believe the commitment to reduce sewage releases by only 80 per cent does not go far enough.

“We know that flooding is a problem that is sadly only going to get worse with climate change. That’s why, alongside stopping the dump of sewage, we’re calling for Southern Water to invest in more projects that stop flooding in the first place.”

The campaign comes after a motion passed by Brighton and Hove City Council in January which called on the council’s chief executive to invite the chief executive of Southern Water to a meeting to discuss workable ways forward to improve water quality.

A spokesman for Southern Water said: "Protecting the environment is a key priority for Southern Water. Our current pollution incident reduction plan will cut pollution incidents by 80 per cent by 2025.

"Southern Water is also a leader in tackling the separate national issue of storm releases. Systems designed to protect homes from flooding are permitted to release stormwater in heavy rain. Thanks to increased transparency such as our Beachbuoy app which shows in near real-time 365 days a year any release with the potential to affect bathing waters public awareness of this system has grown.

"We have set up an innovative taskforce, using natural solutions such as water gardens and swales to cut storm releases by 80 per cent by 2030 in our region.  Both these challenging but achievable targets are first steps to be built upon to further protect our environment - in many cases working with partners including councils, Highways and landowners.

"Dr Toby Willison, our director of environment and corporate affairs and Katy Taylor, our chief customer officer, recently met with Green MP Caroline Lucas and we welcomed the chance to tell her about how the £2 billion we are investing between 2020 and 2025 will benefit customers, protect the environment and boost local economies."