Sewage spill sparks warning to avoid swim spots

People have been warned to stay out of the water in an area of Devon following a sewage spill.

The Environment Agency said it had issued the advice for the Dartmouth area after the "pollution incident" at Mayor's Avenue pumping station, operated by South West Water.

Dart Harbour and Navigation Authority said warning signs would be put up at swim zones including Warfleet Creek, Dartmouth Castle and Sugary Cove.

South West Water said its teams were "working hard" to fix the burst, with tankers taking waste water to a treatment works "while we work to complete the repair as quickly as we can".

The harbour authority said in a post on social media that the spill started at about 21:30 BST on Monday.

"We will put up signs at the swim zone and the bathing beaches, which will remain in place until we are advised the incident is over," said the authority.

SWW warned on its website of an "unplanned interruption".

"Our teams are working hard to fix a burst rising main at our Mayor's Avenue pumping station in Dartmouth," it said.

"We are using tankers to take as much of the flow from the pumping station to the nearby waste water treatment works as possible while we work to complete the repair as quickly as we can."

Harbourmaster Paul Britton warned the timing could not be worse for the town. He said they were "in the middle of the summer season" with "loads of tourists here" and had been forced to close a swimming area that "yesterday was full of people enjoying themselves".

He added tourism was "very much the core" of the local economy and said stories like this had "the potential to really decimate the summer season".

Richard Stone from Dart Harbour Authority said there had been "an overflow from the Mayor's Avenue pumping station" and added it was "unlikely to be a burst pipe".

He said teams had gone out to test water at four sites with campaigners from Friends of the Dart, including the outfall and designated bathing areas at Warfleet and South Embankment, but explained results would not be known "for a couple of days".

The incident follows a similar issue at the same pumping station in May.

Davina Luther from Friends of the Dart said she wanted to see "the opportunity for behaviour change".

She said if people understood the problem, they could work together and push for solutions at "the right time, at the right speed, with the right resources".

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