A shower of poo is still pumped into Blackpool sea despite water bills surging

At this stage, no poo in the sea would be more newsworthy

Welcome to The Blackpool Lead.

Some things are inevitable - the oncoming creep of Christmas and vloggers outside the Metropole for example - and today’s report focuses on another of those things.

Because nothing has become more inevitable than the release of human waste into waterways and the failure of water companies and the government to resolve the issue.

It is a complicated issue to resolve - but one that shouldn’t be so complicated. That it keeps happening and customers will foot the bill for new attempts to resolve it is insulting.

In December, we are offering 20% off the price of a subscription if you make it as a gift to somebody else. You can read about our special Christmas offer here.

Blackpool briefing

🎨 A new set of germs have invaded Blackpool – but they’re inflatable, colourful and part of a fun new free exhibition in the town. The features are the work of Internationally acclaimed artist Jason Wilsher-Mills MBE, who has officially opened his brand-new exhibition Jason and the Adventure of 254 at Grundy Art Gallery. Visitors can expect to see colourful inflatable germs, lightbox memories and a giant figure lying in a hospital bed watching TV, surrounded by oversized plastic toy soldiers. There’s also Blackpool Rock, a brand-new sculpture created especially for the resort and now proudly-installed outside the Grundy.

🎰 Councils across the UK have come together to say no to gambling advertising. Ten new councils – Barnet, Blackpool, Brent, Bristol, Devon, East Suffolk, Enfield, Hackney, Lewisham, and Southampton – have joined the Coalition to End Gambling Ads (CEGA) in a united stand against the spread of harmful gambling promotions. The ten new councils announcing their membership of CEGA join the UK’s leading public health bodies already in the Coalition, including the Royal Society for Public Health, the Association of Directors of Public Health, and the Faculty of Public Health.

🍺 A new micropub planned for Carleton will have an ‘old-style London pub theme’ and possibly serve Jeremy Clarkson’s range of lagers. Those are some of the proposals for Churchills, a new licensed premises expected to be open in the middle of next year. The new bar is earmarked for the front part of the H Wood French Polishers building, on the corner of Blackpool Road and Poulton Road.

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A shower of poo is still pumped into Blackpool sea despite water bills surging

A sewage pipe on a beach in Blackpool. Credit: Alamy

By Michael Holmes

Raw sewage continues to be routinely pumped into the sea at Blackpool - with holidaymakers and locals likely to again be warned not to enter the dangerously polluted water.

Since the start of November, there have been at least 157 releases of human faeces and other sewage from United Utilities’ overflow pipe at Anchorsholme, lasting a total of 3,756 minutes, and 98 from its pipe at Manchester Square, lasting 6,198 minutes, according to data collated by the Surfers Against Sewage campaign group.

From 3am on November 14 to 1am on November 16 alone, sewage was dumped into the sea for 22 hours and 11 minutes, with United Utilities failing - when asked - to explain why.

It comes as annual water quality ratings released by the Environment Agency (EA) again brand Blackpool North - the official name for the stretch of Irish Sea between North and Central Piers - as “poor”, meaning it once more fails to meet the minimum standards for water quality.

The town’s two other stretches - Blackpool South and Blackpool Central - have been given ratings of “sufficient”, alongside St Annes and St Annes North.

It means that overall, despite being a key seaside resort and tourist hotspot where people are often seen paddling in the sea in the summer, Blackpool continues to lag behind much of the country, where 392 of 449 designated swimming spots at beaches, rivers and lakes have been ranked as “excellent” or “good” - some 87%.

The bathing water at Bispham, Cleveleys and Fleetwood has been classed as “good”.

By being rated as “poor”, Blackpool North, which also includes the water opposite the Tower, now finds itself in the bottom 7% of national bathing waters.

The figures have been revealed as reforms to regulations governing bathing waters come into force, including ending rules automatically removing a bathing water’s designated status after failing for five years in a row - instead looking at water quality issues and trying to improve the situation.

With Blackpool North now ranked as “poor” for the past four years, having been labelled “sufficient” in 2021 and “good” in 2019, it could have faced being stripped of its bathing water status in 2026.

There was no rating in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

This year’s results are based on the past four years of EA testing, which looks for E. coli (EC) and intestinal enterococci (IE) pollution, which can make people seriously ill.

Their presence in water indicates the presence of animal or human excrement and the higher their levels, the higher the risk to bathers’ health.

Twenty water samples at Blackpool North were taken between May 1 and September 30 this year.

A sample from September showed high levels of IE pollution, at 960 colony forming units (cfu) per 100ml, and EC, at 1,000cfu per 100ml.

To be classed as “sufficient”, EC levels should be below 500cfu and IE should be below 185cfu.

To be “good”, EC levels should be below 500cfu and IE below 200cfu.

To be “excellent”, EC levels should be below 250cfu and IE below 100cfu.

Despite another year of do-not-swim warnings set to be issued in Blackpool, United Utilities said sewage spills in the overall county “have reduced thanks” to its “multi-million-pound investment across the county”.

It said EA figures “show a 38% reduction in spill duration across Lancashire in 2024, with the number of spills from storm overflows falling by 22%”.

It was unable to provide figures for Blackpool, though The Blackpool Lead was able to scrutinise annual EA statistics for itself.