Swimmers have been advised to stay out of the water yet again this week with sewage discharge alerts at both Teignmouth Town Beach and Holcombe Beach.

This comes after a demonstration was staged last weekend on Teignmouth seafront, in protest against the same sewage discharges experienced today. The protest was organised by Dawlish Councillor Martin Wrigley and Teignmouth Councillor David Cox, who, in recent years, have made persistent efforts to hold South West Water accountable for their conduct.

Protesters dressed up and wrote placards calling for an end to sewage discharges. They also signed a giant postcard demanding that the practice ends, which will be delivered to South West Water.

On the pollution alert, the charity Surfers Against Sewage stated: ‘Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.

‘Holcombe is an isolated beach backed by cliffs and a railway line. A sewer overflow discharges into the Holcombe Stream 40m upstream of the beach.

‘Teignmouth Town beach is a 1km stretch of sand backed by a promenade and the town. A sewer overflow at the railway station discharges northeast of the beach.’

According to Top of the Poops, an organisation monitoring sewage discharges across the UK, the Central Devon constituency was the seventh worst for sewage dumps last year, with over 4,500 separate sewage dumps, amounting to over 43,000 hours of sewage pumping. The Newton Abbot constituency saw over 2,000 sewage dumps, amounting to 2,900 hours of sewage discharge. The Environmental Agency gave South West Water its worst environmental rating of just one star, a score shared only with Southern Water.

Councillor Wrigley said: ‘It is an absolute disgrace, in this day there’s no excuse for having systems that are leaking so badly, killing our rivers and seas, it’s pure profit-driven mismanagement of the infrastructure. It’s just not acceptable, and we must do everything we can to hold South West Water to account.’

A South West Water spokesperson said: ‘After listening to and talking with customers, communities and campaigners right across our region, in April we announced WaterFit, our plans to protect rivers and seas together.

‘WaterFit will dramatically reduce our use of storm overflows, maintain our region’s excellent bathing water quality standards all year round and reduce and then remove our impact on river water quality by 2030.

‘Working with partners and customers WaterFit will begin to deliver the change we all want to see.’

► To access the interactive map and ensure your beach day isn’t scuppered by sewage, go to: https://www.sas.org.uk/map/ and  https://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/