Yorkshire Water Say Major Upgrades Set To Dramatically Reduce Coastal Spills

Dozens of new infrastructure projects are underway across Scarborough and Whitby to significantly reduce storm water discharges into the sea and improve local bathing waters.

Waste water discharges into the sea and rivers will be targeted by fifty-four new infrastructure projects across the Scarborough and Whitby areas.

Yorkshire Water has confirmed that work is already ongoing to improve the local wastewater network over the next five years, with a major focus on reducing spills from combined sewer overflows.

The Manager of Strategic Partnerships for Bathing Water at Yorkshire Water, Miles Cameron, says the utilities company is working closely with local businesses to minimise disruption.

He cited recent improvements at Wheatcroft in Scarborough as a successful example of this ongoing investment:

"Just in the Scarborough and Whitby area, we're looking at about 54 projects on infrastructure, specifically around the waste water network, which as I know is of concern for many people, and they'll be delivered over the next five years, and some of those are started in earnest now. Some of those to do with what many in the public and customers must see as abhorrent, the discharges to our environment, whether to the sea, whether to the river. This is through the Environment Act will drive investment to reduce spills from our combined sewer overflow assets. By 2035, as an entity, we must make sure that for anywhere that's in a marine environment that's got a designated bathing water designation, like Whitby, Scarborough North, Scarborough South, you must have assets spilling less than twice within that bathing season. You'll say, "Twice is still too much," but that's a significant reduction."

Long-term plans for the coast will stretch out over the next decade. While Scarborough is seeing immediate action, further major infrastructure works are scheduled for the coming years to ensure coastal towns are not left behind.

Miles Cameron said:

"That does mean a lot of work. But the good news is it's starting and it will start for over a five year period for the likes of Scarborough and other parts of the county. Whitby's not getting left behind I might add. There has been some investment. The big infrastructure work is like to happen to 2030 and 2035. That was in the minutes neglected. We'll continue to work on the assets, improve the situation. But in terms of any major infrastructure works, that will come in this second five year plan. And again the commitment from me and the business is to make sure we keep councillors, customers and stakeholders alike appraised of that. I said before that it's not just about the pipes and pumps, it is about improving resilience of the assets as well. It is about building resilience into our infrastructure."

Millions of pounds have already been directed into local projects to create storage and improve the environment, including around the North Yorkshire Moors.

Miles Cameron said:

"I've talked about prior investment in Wheatcroft as an example. We need to do more of that and that's what's coming, so 2.4 million was spent just simply at Wheatcroft alone. To give you a flavour of where we are investing around the region, because I know my remit is principally around the bathing waters and the marine environment, we do have a number of assets or infrastructure around the North Yorkshire moors. That investment again is to drive and reduce spills, create storage, and improve the environment. And that's in line with the environment act, and the idea is we deliver that work well ahead of schedule by 2030. So work has started in Scarborough. You may have started to see work happening. Hopefully not causing lots of road works. There is an amount of disruption, and I think we're incredibly sensitive to that."

Residents may spot contractors conducting topographic surveys and more intrusive borehole drilling across the area. These investigations will help engineers understand ground conditions for potential underground storm water storage facilities.

Miles Cameron said there are two types of survey going on currently in the Scarborough area:

"Something called topographic surveys, which is really where we're going to construct, where we're going to build, understanding the layer of the land, taking measurements, and that's our contract. Partners doing that. They may be people wearing hi-viz jackets out and about in the town, nothing to be alarmed about. The second one is borehole surveys. That sounds pretty grim. It is intrusive and it can be disruptive. These are limited to between two or three weeks at any point in time. There's roughly 16 of these boreholes currently being worked on with a view that by the end of October, that work will be complete. The reason for this work is really to understand the ground conditions. Part of the solution may be to build some sort of underground storage or tunnel facility that stores storm water, so it doesn't go into the environment, it's held and then once the storm's abated, that can be transferred through for full treatment."