South Holland rivers were subject to more than 1,000 hours of sewage being released during 2022, according to a recent report.
The total number of spills has reduced, but Anglian Water acknowledges there is still ‘much to do’ in the future.
The Rivers Trust has published its findings for last year, and Spalding’s treatment works saw 38 incidents with 255 hours of spillage into the Welland. Last year the figure was 45 spills over a total of 437 hours at the same site.
The South Holland total for 2022 was 1,176 hours with 175 spills. The Trust’s sewage map shows a total of 3,841 spills in the county with a cumulative time of 18,874 hours – more than two calendar years.
But in 2021 there were 195,594 hours of spills in Greater Lincolnshire so the latest number is hugely reduced.
Anglian Water has the second fewest recorded spills in the country, only beaten by Thames Water in the London region.
“The data clearly shows that overall the number of hours of spills from our storm overflows reduced by over 50 per cent compared to 2021. We are also well on track to ensure all our storm overflows are monitored by the end of the year,” said a statement.
Anglian Water is investing £200m in reducing storm spills, and this year £39m is being spent on the problem.
Spillages were also recorded at Sutton Bridge for 31 times over 36 hours – a rise on the 2021 figure of 30 times and three hours.
At Crowland there were 19 incidents lasting 290 hours, at Holbeach there were 21 spillages over 68 hours.
Anglian Water has also committed to 100 per cent monitoring coverage of all storm drains, at the moment the figure is around 89 per cent. North Kesteven topped the Lincolnshire list with 3,983 hours.
Meanwhile, Anglian Water has been highly criticised in a report which accuses it of causing problems for Lincolnshire County Council’s highways team.
The authority’s Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee will receive a report on Monday, on the utilities company which receives around a third if all highways permits to the council.
The company has come under scrutiny in recent years following a series of fines and delays, as well as major sinkhole issues. Some of the issues highlighted by the report before councillors include:
* Inconsistency in dropping road closure signs when not needed or teams not on site
* Inconsistency in contacting LCC for agreement prior to implementing an immediate road closure
* AW setting up traffic management before it is confirmed a team is available to attend the site
* Failing to provide LCC with diversion information for emergency road closures and failing to apply for Temporary Traffic Regulation Order notices
* 250 outstanding defects of greater than six months
* Increase in fines and penalties for Anglian Water in 2021.
“The extension of works periods and the late removal of traffic management measures has a detrimental effect on the expeditious flow of traffic upon our highway network,” said the report.
“Continued collaboration and cooperation with Anglian Water will help to improve traffic flows and reduce congestion.
“Increased compliance will reduce the number of fines and penalties Anglian Water incur and adds a beneficial incentive to further collaboration with Lincolnshire County Council.”
Since April, the council has recovered £220,000 of costs from Anglian Water.
Out of 1,892 AW road closures between April 1, 2022, and January 31, 2023, it failed to apply for traffic regulation orders for 427 (23 per cent).
In November, figures released by the council showed a 66.7 per cent increase in fines for 2021-22, charging £543,050 for a total of 1,875 permit breaching days.
Recent issue include a series of closures in Spalding at the beginning of April when AW put around seven repairs in place while LCC carried out works in Winfrey Avenue, causing gridlock in the town.
An Anglian Water Spokesperson said: “The health and safety of our customers and our teams when carrying out essential work on our networks is absolutely paramount and we do our best to minimise disruption to communities and road users wherever possible.”
“We are currently working closely with Lincolnshire Highways on a range of initiatives targeted at improving our operational excellence.
“This includes making significant improvements to our systems, processes and the training of our operational teams.”
