Sewage spills more than quadrupled in parts of Oxfordshire

Hours of sewage spills more than quadrupled in South Oxfordshire, more than trebled in West Oxfordshire and trebled in Cherwell while the length of spills rose dozens of times in Oxford.

Data from the Environment Agency (EA) shows sewage from facilities operated by Thames Water flowed into water bodies in Oxford for 2,096 hours in 2023, during 134 spills.

This was up a whopping 1,900 hours from 164 hours the year before, when there were 15 spills in the area.

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All of these were from facilities operated by Thames Water.

West Oxfordshire's waterways saw 22,240 hours of sewage discharges in 2023, during 1,369 spills.

This was almost a 16,000 hour increase from 6,362 hours recorded the year before, when there were 507 spills in the area, EA figures show.

All of these were from facilities operated by Thames Water.

Worst of all, South Oxfordshire saw sewage from storm overflows flow into water bodies for 11,012 hours in 2023, during 810 spills.

This was more than quadruple the 2,463 hours recorded the year before, when there were 229 spills in the area.

These were also from facilities operated by Thames Water.

And sewage was released into Cherwell's waterways for 12,061 hours in 2023, during 1,059 spills.

This was treble the 3,962 hours recorded the year before, when there were 466 spills.

These figures cover the original location sewage was discharged into the environment – the area might also be impacted by sewage released upstream or in shared water bodies.

Nationally England saw a massive rise in both the number of spills and how long sewage was discharged for.

Last year 3.6 million hours were recorded – with less than 1.8 million hours in 2022 – while the number of spills rose from 301,000 to 464,000.

The Environment Agency said this rise may be partly due to the country experiencing its sixth-wettest year on record.

But James Wallace, chief executive of campaign group River Action, said water companies have "run amok" with their customers' money.

"The scale of the discharges by water companies is a final indictment of a failing industry," he said.

A spokeswoman for industry body Water UK said: "These results are unacceptable and demonstrate exactly why we urgently need regulatory approval to upgrade our system so it can better cope with the weather.

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"We have a plan to sort this out by tripling investment which will cut spills by 40 per cent by 2030 – more than double the Government’s target.

"We now need the regulator Ofwat to give us the green light so that we can get on with it."