Southern Water pleads guilty to 13 Kent sewage spills

Signs were placed on local beaches and bays to warn the public

A water company has pleaded guilty to 13 counts relating to untreated sewage spills in Margate and Broadstairs.

Southern Water admitted it failed to comply with an environmental permit on a number of occasions at a hearing at Medway Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

The prosecution, brought by the Environment Agency, covers a period from 2019 to 2021 - and includes incidents which closed several beaches in Thanet after unpermitted discharges from Margate and Broadstairs wastewater pumping stations.

Southern Water has apologised and said it was making improvements.

Further charges related to the company's failure to report the unpermitted discharges quickly enough to Thanet District Council and to the Environment Agency, the court heard.

There were five main incidents across 2019, 2020 and 2021.

In June 2021, 11 of Thanet's beaches were closed for a week which the company said at the time was due to a power outage at the Margate Foreness Point pumping station treatment works, which was caused by a lightning strike.

Margate's former mayor, councillor Rob Yates, told BBC South East that the spill has had a long term effect on the town's residents.

He said: "Every time they want to go swimming, they feel nervous."

In a statement on Tuesday, Southern Water apologised and said it had made changes to its leadership team since the incidents to transform the company.

The statement read: "In Thanet alone, since 2020 we've invested more than £28 million in our wastewater sites and sewer network, and we plan to spend a further £47.2 million over the next ten years."

Sentencing will happen at a later date at a crown court.