New teams crack down on Devon pollution hotspots

Farms also on the radar for inspection teams

New teams of water inspectors are cracking down on pollution along the Devon coast.

Unannounced inspections of South West Water sites are among the methods being used by the new teams from the Environment Agency (EA), set up in response to anger over pollution of beaches, rivers and streams across the county.

Inspections on local farms are also being stepped up as the EA tries to prevent pollution of inland rivers and streams.

A recent Teignbridge Council meeting heard that the Teign Estuary alone had 420 discharges in 2024, totalling more than 2,100 hours during which untreated sewage and wastewater flowed into the water.

Cllr David Cox (Lib Dem, Teignmouth Central) said increased sewage spills were ‘totally unacceptable’ and continual government underfunding had reduced regulators the EA and Ofwat to ‘toothless tigers’.

Cllr Andrew MacGregor (Independent, Bishopsteignton) told the same meeting that discharges into watercourses, rivers and the sea were not only a health risk for residents and visitors but also a risk to local tourism businesses.

Newton Abbot’s Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley raised the issue with a written question to environment under-secretary Emma Hardy, the Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice.

He asked what steps she was taking to help protect beaches between the mouth of the River Exe and the mouth of the River Dart.

She said the EA had recruited two new teams to step up regulation of SWW sites in Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

There would, she said, be more compliance checks including unannounced inspections, studying storm overflow data and increasing enforcement action for pollution incidents.

She said the EA had increased inspections in the last year, and would more than double these in the coming year.

“This includes water company assets in the Newton Abbot constituency,” she added. “It will also attend more incidents.”

The EA has also increased the number of farm inspections, moving towards what Ms Hardy described as ‘a more sustainable and healthy farming industry’.

She added: “Dedicated farm inspection officers are currently inspecting farms and undertaking enforcement action in the highest priority catchments including the River Otter and Exe.”