Southern Water fined over dumping sewage in Kent coasts

Southern Water has been fined £7m for dumping sewage off the Kent coast, causing widespread damage to the local economy and tourism.

The company pleaded guilty last April to 13 offences over illegal discharges at Margate and Broadstairs wastewater pumping stations between 2019 and 2021.

During the two-day sentencing hearing at Canterbury Crown Court prosecutor Andrew Marshall said some of the sewage was “unscreened” – meaning it still contained solid waste.

Defending Southern Water, Dominic Kay said there had been new leadership at the company since 2022 and it had been rebuilt around accountability.

The court heard that nine counts against the water company related to incidents of untreated sewage being dumped, including an intermittent flow of sewage on 20 July 2019 at the Margate site which lasted from about 02:00 BST to just before midnight.

The Environment Agency (EA) was not notified until more than 32 hours after the first discharge.

The court heard that on 16 February 2021, untreated sewage from the Broadstairs wastewater station was dumped into the sea due to a technical error.

It lasted for nearly five hours and authorities were only notified at the end of the discharge, the court was told.

Three charges concerned failures to notify authorities as soon as practicable, which is a condition of Southern Water’s environmental permit.

A final charge was for failing to have a standby pump at Margate’s station between 27 July 2019 and 4 October 2020.

In June 2021, 11 beaches in Thanet had to be closed for a week, with the district council declaring it a “high profile pollution incident”.

Marshall said tourism was a “major industry” in the area, with 20% of employment related to it.

Thanet District Council’s director of environment Michael Humber said the sewage discharges had been “particularly negatively impactful”.