Shocking figures show that last year, South West Water was allowed to dump 88 weeks worth of raw sewage into Truro and Falmouth’s natural environment, says Labour.

The Labour party says last year, 618 days worth of raw sewage was dumped into Truro and Falmouth’s rivers, lakes, beaches and seas.

Labour's parliamentary candidate for the area, Jayne Kirkham says she was "horrified" to discover that last year the sewer storm overflow on the rocks right next to Gyllyngvase Beach spilled into Falmouth Bay 40 times for a total of 27 hours.

"The overflow into the Fal at the Prince of Wales Pier isn’t even monitored," she said. "Our rivers and beaches in Truro and Falmouth Constituency are so heavily used by residents and tourists alike. This is so bad for our health, our waterways, the fishing that is done in our rivers and seas and our economy. We must have the powers to force water companies to stop this.”

The Rivers Trust Interactive Map which displays constituency breakdowns of monitored storm overflows, shows that in 2021, raw sewage was discharged into Truro and Falmouth’s natural environment for a duration of 14,841 hours, or 618 days.

The map also points to 2,004 sewage spills in 2021 – 5.5 spills per day - polluting the areas in which people live, work and holiday.

Last week the government published its Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan saying the public has made clear that such discharges are "completely unacceptable."

READ HERE:

Plan announced to tackle untreated sewage discharges in Cornwall and nationally

However critics say the plan gives 'carte blanche' for water companies to dump sewage in the UK's sea and rivers for the next 23 years, whereas before it was illegal.

Last year, Conservative MPs voted to block a Labour-backed amendment to the Environment Bill that, Labour said, would have sought to progressively eliminate sewage dumping into our natural environment.

Cherilyn Mackrory Conservative Member of Parliament for Truro and Falmouth constituency, voted against this amendment saying it was poorly drafted, uncosted, with no plan or impact assessment whatsoever.

She said it would have resulted in either the taxpayer and/or water bill payers footing an astronomical bill.

The Labour Party says a fortnight ago it found that that on average water companies in England and Wales are pumping raw sewage into our natural environment every two-and-a-half minutes, with areas such as beaches, playing fields and bathing waters having faced 1,076 years-worth of raw sewage over a six-year period.

Labour claim that prime ministerial hopeful Liz Truss was responsible for unleashing cuts of tens of millions of pounds to the Environment Agency, with Environment Agency data showing that the Tories presided over a doubling of water companies dumping raw sewage in subsequent years.