Government 'appalled' by beach pellet incident

Volunteers cleaning up the pellets at Camber Sands have described it as "the worst single incident" they have encountered

The environment secretary says she is "appalled" by the pollution incident which led to huge numbers of plastic beads washing up on an East Sussex beach.

Emma Reynolds told MPs she was "holding Southern Water to account" about the spill at Camber Sands and has called for a thorough investigation.

Southern Water apologised for the spill, which prompted a clean-up operation by the local council and volunteers.

The company said on Thursday it had "committed to an independent investigation into the cause".

Southern Water previously said it was likely that the beads - used in the water treatment process - had come from the Eastbourne wastewater treatment works.

Reynolds told the House of Commons the authorities' "immediate priority is to address the damage caused".

She added: "We need to ask questions about why this wasn't uncovered earlier."

The pellets were released into the sea during heavy rainfall, after the failure of a screening filter which should have stopped them escaping.

The water company said a defective tank was spotted on 28 October, but it was not known at the time whether any pellets had escaped.

In the Commons, Josh Babarinde, Eastbourne MP, warned of "catastrophic failures" by Southern Water in the region.

The Liberal Democrat described a "stench stinking out" the town "and a matter of days ago, the accidental discharge of millions of plastic bio-beads into our sea".

Babarinde asked for a meeting with ministers to discuss how they could "force Southern Water to finally get a grip of their appalling failures".

Southern Water has apologised after the plastic pellets washed up on Camber Sands beach

A spokesperson for Southern Water said: "Further investigations, including draining a large tank over the past 24 hours, have uncovered vastly more beads still in the system at Eastbourne than originally anticipated.

"This means substantially fewer beads - less than 10 tonnes - have entered the environment."

The company says about 80% of the beads have been removed from the beach as a result of the clean-up operation, led by Rother District Council.

Environment Minister Emma Hardy, is visiting Camber Sands on Thursday to view the clean-up.

A public meeting is being held on Thursday evening at Tilling Green Community Centre in Rye, chaired by local MP Helena Dollimore and with representatives from Southern Water, Strandliners and Rother District Council.

Additional reporting from PA Media.

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