Huttoft: Children fall ill after paddling through 'sewage’ at beach

Mrs Oldham said there was "poo" deposited along the beach and "a strong stench" at Huttoft

A mother has said she was left "mortified" after seeing her children running through what she described as raw sewage on a Lincolnshire beach.

Emma Oldham, from Newark, said her family fell ill after paddling in the foamy brown water at Huttoft, near Mablethorpe, at the weekend.

There was "poo" all along the beach, and a really strong stench, she said.

Both Anglian Water and the Environment Agency said the material was likely to be a form of foul smelling algae.

Emma Oldham says her family fell ill after paddling in the sea at Huttoft

Describing the incident, Mrs Oldham, who is a conservation biologist, said two of her children had been splashing around in the sea, and as she ran into the water to join them "a really strong stench of poo just overwhelmed us".

She said: "The waves were really dirty coloured. I tried not to panic to start off with - thinking, could it be the mudflats had been disturbed by the recent rainfall?

"Then, one of my daughters said it was really smelly, and that's when the penny dropped," she said.

"That's when I thought, we need to get out. I really do think this is sewage."

In a tweet, Mrs Oldham said she was left "mortified and sick" by the experience.

She added that her family had felt nauseous and her children were poorly later that day.

However, in a statement Anglian Water said it had carried out an inspection and found no sewage in the water or on the beach.

"The picture in the post is of sea algae, which is a natural phenomenon, completely unrelated to sewage," a spokesperson said.

"For clarity, we have no storm overflows along the sea front in this area.

"There is nothing at Moggs Eye, and waste water from the Anderby Creek Water Recycling Centre is taken to Ingoldmells, much further along the coast, to be treated."

Meanwhile, the Environment Agency said it had not been notified of any pollution incidents at Huttoft beach over the weekend.