Sir Ed Davey: Tory MPs 'at risk of losing their seats' over sewage

Sir Ed, 57, said the situation with untreated sewage being released into the ocean across the country was a “national scandal”.

He was visiting Eastbourne and Lewes yesterday, two seats which are expected to be won by the Lib Dems from the Tories.

It comes days after the announcement of government plans to hand out unlimited fines to water companies that dump sewage, as well as the announcement that wet wipes containing plastic will be banned to help ease sewage blockages.

Sir Ed Davey met dog walkers in Eastbourne (Image: Lib Dems)

The Lib Dems say the proposal around wet wipes is a rehash of government plans from 2018 which is being used to “fool people”.

Sir Ed told The Argus: “We’re trying to get the government to do something. Conservative MPs have been voting against action that we’ve been putting forward in the House of Commons. Frankly that’s a national scandal.

“The government promised five years ago that they would ban wet wipes with plastic in. Plenty of people have been fooled by that. We want real action.

“The immediate priority – the blue flag beaches which are meant to be the best beaches internationally for clean water. They have had sewage dumps 1,500 times. It’s just shocking.

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“First of all, prioritise those areas so people can swim and it doesn’t affect tourism. We need to bring forward urgent investment into sewage overflows. Longer term, we need to get tougher on the water companies with tougher regulation.”

Sussex has four blue flag beaches, namely Brighton Central, Hove Lawns, Marina St Leonards near Hastings and West Wittering near Chichester.

There were 45 sewage releases totalling more than 107 hours from a pumping station in Saltdean, four miles away from Brighton beach.

St Leonards had 13 hours of sewage dumps from 13 spills.

West Wittering had no sewage spills.

James MacCleary and Sir Ed Davey with Lib Dem supporters in Lewes (Image: Lib Dems)

Shoreham beach which is five miles west of Hove had 30 spills totalling more than 90 hours of releases.

“We have talked about a sewage tax on water companies to raise the money for the investment that is going to be needed. We think there needs to be greater accountability”, said Sir Ed.

He added: “I wish the Conservatives would take some action rather than make excuses the whole time. People are fed up, it is not good enough. People are allowing their mates in the water companies to make massive profits.

“This is going to be a big issue. Conservative MPs are getting worried because they are going to lose their seats over this.

“Let’s get the investment done, let’s target and prioritise it.”

Shoreham beach

On Saturday, Conservative MP for Eastbourne Caroline Ansell met with senior Southern Water official Toby Willison and members of Eastbourne Sea Swimmers where he joined them to brave the cold water.

Caroline said: “This was a positive meeting where I hope the swimmers really got a good idea of some of the issues and challenges we all face to ensure our seawater quality improves.”

Following news of the 2022 sewage figures, which revealed Southern Water dumped sewage into waterways 16,000 times, it admitted that, despite figures for sewage overflows decreasing, it still “isn’t good enough”.