MPs from across Sussex have written to Southern Water and the Environment Agency demanding that the Sussex waterways and coast ‘are respected and protected.’

In the letter, the MPs state “Once again, the rivers and coastline across Sussex are being blighted by the discharge of sewage”.

Revealing the cost, they add “In addition to the obvious environmental and community impact, the closure of popular beaches and restrictions on inland waterways causes financial loss to the numerous businesses who rely on our beaches and rivers’

Pointing to new legislation which puts a duty on water authorities to take action to eradicate sewage discharges, the MPs say ‘We were pleased to support a Conservative amendment to the Environment Bill which, after decades of inaction by Governments of all political shades, for the first time ever, puts a statutory obligation to eradicate this practice.”

The MPs are now seeking an urgent meeting in Parliament with both organisations ‘in order to get an action plan and timeline’ for this duty to be delivered.

In addition to the meeting, the MPs have demanded details of each and every discharge across their constituencies and the role played by the Sussex Resilience Forum in delivering emergency action between local authorities and agencies. The MPs are due to be separately meeting with representatives of the LRF to assess its capacity to coordinate responses to emergency events.