Yorkshire Water permit breaches double in two years amidst £47m fine, FoI finds

In the case of Yorkshire Water, the total number of breaches rose from 35 in 2021 to 72 in 2023, according to the Liberal Democrats’ FoI. 

Of those, the government documents stated 32 were related to unauthorised discharges of sewage and wastewater. Yorkshire Water said it did not recognise the figures.

It comes in the same week as Ofwat announced a £47 million fine for the water company for a “catalogue of failures”. Earlier in the month, it was revealed that chief executive Nicola Shaw received a £371,000 annual bonus for 2023-24 financial year.

The Labour government announced plans in the King’s Speech to ban bonuses for water company executives.

Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said: “Quite frankly these sort of payouts and bonuses just beggar belief. 

“At the same time as all of this, the environmental damage is at a record high. It’s the worst of all worlds across the board and shows that, quite frankly, Yorkshire Water and other water companies in their current state are not fit for purpose. They are completely and utterly broken.”

The latest testing of the River Nidd by Knaresborough Lido has found E.coli 10 times higher than “sufficient” levels, which scientists say is a strong indicator of raw sewage.

“Already, earlier in the summer season we had kids sent home from school,” Mr Gordon explained. 

“Every year we have people who end up in hospital as a result of E.coli in the water.”

The Lib Dems have long called for a crackdown on water companies who are found guilty of breaching their environmental permits and for executives’ bonuses to be banned.

The MP added: “What we need is a comprehensive plan across the board which will start turning water companies into public benefit companies, which have got to reinvest money and profits into that critical infrastructure to ensure this kind of behaviour does not continue.”

This comes as new figures show spills into the River Ouse lasted for the equivalent of almost two years in 2023.

Environment Agency data showed storm overflows discharged wastewater including sewage into the York stretch of the River Ouse for a total of 16,357.41 hours, equivalent to around 22 months.

One storm overflow which discharges from behind Coney Street in York city centre spilled into the River Ouse 204 times for 3,649.5 hours, equivalent to almost five months.

In total in 2023, across the nine water companies in England, 695 breaches were recorded, by the FoI.

The Department for Environment and Rural Affairs previously revealed that 554 breaches were made in 2022; 273 in 2021; and 841 in 2020.

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “We have approximately 145,000 permit conditions covering a wide range of factors to comply with in the operation of our wastewater network. 

“Many of these instances were reported by ourselves to the Environment Agency as part of our commitment to operator self-monitoring standards.

“Our wastewater treatment works are industry-leading for discharge permit compliance and we are continuing to invest in all our wastewater assets to improve performance across the region.”

On the River Ouse, Yorkshire Water Project Manager Omair Khan said a new underground wastewater storage in Poppleton worth £2.1m was among efforts being made to reduce discharges.