MP condemns water company for 'repeated failings'

Pippa Heylings said there was "a lack of oversight from senior management at the board" at Anglian Water

An MP has criticised a water company's "repeated failings" to maintain and upgrade sewage infrastructure after it agreed to pay out £62.8m.

Regulator Ofwat announced the redress package had been agreed after finding a "serious breach" in how Anglian Water managed its sewage works.

Pippa Heylings, Liberal Democrat MP for South Cambridgeshire, said a "lack of oversight from senior management and the board" had resulted in "excessive pollution" being discharged into rivers and coastal waters.

A spokesperson for Anglian Water has said: "We understand the need to rebuild trust with customers and that aspects of our performance need to improve to do that."

Heylings added: "Anglian Water has let down its customers, our environment, and the communities it is supposed to serve.

"Our rivers and coastal areas are being polluted with raw sewage, wildlife is suffering, and local people are rightly outraged.

"The public shouldn't be forced to pay the price for the water companies' failure."

Ofwat has proposed improvements Anglian Water must make to its wastewater treatment works and network after discovering "excessive spills from storm overflows".

Anne Miller, from the Cam Valley Forum, has been campaigning for improving the environment on the River Cam in Cambridgeshire.

She told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: "We've been calling for a long time for the regulators to get tough with the water companies and really enforce penalties on bad behaviour.

"So whereas we wish that Anglian Water [wasn't] in breach, [it is] and a £62m fine [is] great.

"We need Anglian Water to be investing in improving the sewage works upstream and other bits of sewage infrastructure that regularly overflow every time in rains."

She added: "Swimming in the Cam is absolutely brilliant, both for mental health and it connects people with nature.

"We see lots of youngsters here in Cambridge, particularly from some of the poorer areas of this highly unequal city we have... they socialise, they play, they get fit, they're in nature splashing around in the river - that is really important.

"This is a local resource for local people and we need it to be clean and safe, and currently it is not really safe."

Anglian Water was one of six water firms banned from paying its chief executive a bonus for last year.

Mark Thurston, who took over as chief executive in July last year from Peter Simpson, said earlier: "It will take time and investment to achieve a significant reduction in spills, but we are making good progress."

He added the company had allocated £1bn to fund measures aimed at halving the number of spills by 2030.