Leaky pipes may explain years-long bay pollution

Lots of people on the sandy beach at Cullercoats on a sunny day. There are houses and a cathedral on top of the small cliff in the background. A lifeboat is moored at the end of a stone jetty.

Image source, PAImage caption,

Water quality at Cullercoats has been rated "poor" since 2018

ByJason Arunn MurugesuNorth East and Cumbria

Published43 minutes ago

Water chiefs say sewage leaking from damaged pipes could be a source of pollution which has plagued a seafront for years.

Since 2018 water quality at Cullercoats Bay in North Tyneside has been given the lowest possible rating by the Environment Agency (EA), which tests for contamination from bacteria linked to human and animal faeces.

Northumbrian Water has long blamed polluted groundwater for the beach's low score but for years, alongside others including the EA and North Tyneside Council, has been unable to get to the root of the problem.

But the water company now says it may have identified and fixed a source of the sewage leaks which had been causing the contamination.

Northumbrian Water said it had discovered damaged private and public pipework, as well as incorrectly fitted household pipes on Beverley Terrace, during recent survey and excavation work.

It said it suspected the pipes had leaked sewage into the ground, contaminating groundwater which then seeped into the bay.

'Positive difference'

The firm said it had fixed its damaged pipes and was still working with homeowners to fix pipework on their properties.

Its wastewater director Richard Warneford said: "We are hopeful that these actions will make a positive difference to the bathing water at Cullercoats."

In 2022, the company installed a drainage pipe on the bay which it said it hoped at the time could "really make a difference".

At the time, it said investigations carried out showed no evidence of the water company's assets being a primary cause of pollution.

Northumbrian Water said the EA would be carrying out more water quality tests at Cullercoats to determine if the repaired sewage leaks had finally solved the site's long-running pollution problems.

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