Thames Water has apologised for recurring sewage releases near Oxford over Christmas.

Sewage release alerts for Witney Sewage Treatment Works were posted from a automatic notification Twitter account five times.

The releases  at 8.15pm on December 21, 2.15pm on December 22, 10am on December 23, 9.45am on Christmas Day and 6.30am on December 28 were blamed on flood alerts around the Oxford area and were described as "regrettable" by Thames Water.

There was also a three-hour storm overflow from Church Hanborough on December 27.

But pop star turned environmental activist Feargal Sharkey retweeted the Witney alert with the comment: "There are only 2 small stretches of river in England officially designated as bathing water. This is one of them."

 

 

Castle Mill Stream, a backwater of the Thames at Port Meadow, was granted bathing water status by DEFRA in April after a long campaign by wild swimmers and locals to improve the water quality and stop sewage releases by Thames Water.

But by November the county’s only official swimming spot had failed bacteria safety tests.

Last year outdoor swimmers were also forced to cancel their Boxing Day river dip at Port Meadow after Thames Water announced a sewage dump from Witney on Christmas Day.

Oxford City Councillor for Wolvercote Jo Sandelson, a member of the outdoor swimming group Brrrrr!, decided to give it a miss again this year.

She said: “Many of my friends, like myself, decided not to risk their health on Christmas Day.

"We’re holding out for New Year’s Day, though as Thames Water says it can take four days for the untreated sewage to clear, we are relying on them not dumping from now until then.

"Our group and others don’t want to get ill swimming in this pollution. More importantly it’s killing the fish and the river itself.”

Thames Water  said it is increasing sewage treatment capacity across the Thames Valley, including Witney and Fairford, which is expected to be completed by 2025.

“Regrettably there has been a recent sewage release at Witney sewage works," a spokesperson said. "The release started at 06:30 on 28/12/2022.

"We’re also aware there have been flood alerts in place for several days for the River Thames and River Cherwell in the Oxford area.

"Putting untreated sewage into rivers is unacceptable to us, but after heavy rain it’s sometimes necessary and permitted. This prevents it flooding homes, gardens, streets, and open spaces.

"With the help of the government, Ofwat and the Environment Agency, we're working hard to make these releases unnecessary.

“Our shareholders have recently approved a business plan that sees us spending an additional £2billion beyond what our customers are funding so we can improve outcomes for customers, leakage and river health and we’ve also committed to a 50% reduction in the total annual duration of spills across London and the Thames Valley by 2030, and within that an 80% reduction in sensitive catchments."

 

Ash Smith, chair of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP) said: "Many sewage works in Oxfordshire are failing from lack of capacity and have been allowed to get that way because the regulation by Ofwat and the Environment Agency has been pathetically weak and the water companies are very clever at making money with no regard for the consequences - pollution has been a very profitable activity.

"Some works are frequently operating illegally and still new housing is being planned and even excepted, to add to the load at the rate of about 30 tonnes of sewage wastewater per day from every 100 houses.

"WASP is now contributing statements of evidence to planning applications to allow councils to get a grip of this scandal to try to force Thames Water to spend money which they clearly have, before making pollution even worse.

"Local politicians across the parties are supporting this fight back while our Government simply pushes its lamentable plans for inadequate action as far away as 2063."

 

 

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This story was written by Miranda Norris, she joined the team in 2021 and covers news across Oxfordshire as well as news from Witney.

Get in touch with her by emailing: Miranda.Norris@newsquest.co.uk. Or find her on Twitter: @Mirandajnorris

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