Credit;PA
Beachgoers in Blackpool and Flyde have been told to avoid swimming in the sea after untreated sewage was discharged into the water.
Popular beaches in Blackpool, Cleveleys and St Annes have been hit with public warnings after United Utilities said sewage had been dumped after heavy rain in the area.
The company said the system “temporarily reached full capacity at sites in Blackpool and untreated sewage, mixed with rainwater, was released into the sea” in a statement.
Mark Garth, the company’s wastewater director, said it was a “very unusual incident”, although reports of sewage entering UK waters have been alarmingly high of late.
Labour analysis published in April found almost a million hours worth of sewage discharges occurred across coastal constituencies last year.
The party has highlighted data from the Environment Agency (EA) which it says shows 141,777 sewage dumping events across 137 of a total of 139 coastal constituencies in England and Wales in 2022.
Shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon said people who live by the coast “should be able to just enjoy the place where they live without having to worry about encountering filthy raw sewage”.
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