Work starts on £26m inland sewage plant on fast eroding Yorkshire coastline

A waste water treatment plant near Withernsea is being moved inland

Yorkshire Water's Withernsea Wastewater Treatment Works on Holmpton Road is now just 40 metres from the sea – when it was last last upgraded in 1991, it was 168 metres away from the cliff edge.

Contractors Ward and Burke and Van Oord, a marine specialist engineering company, have now started work on the replacement long sea outfall.

It will involve directional drilling from North Leys Road near Holmpton Road out to sea, with the marine section of the pipe being transported by vessels and sunk into place.

Further down Holmpton Road is the Golden Sands Holiday Park where many chalets have been lost to the sea

The overland section will cross fields in the direction of Hollym to the site of the new works next to the A1033 south of the village.

Work on the outfall is expected to take until October when it will begin taking flows from the existing plant on the cliff edge.

A contractor is being appointed to build the new, more environmentally sustainable Aer-Fac wastewater treatment works service wastewater for 15,000 people.

The plant - which will service wastewater will be the first plant of its kind in Yorkshire, with a low-carbon construction producing minimal odour and noise.

Sludge will not have to be removed by tanker.

Once completed the old works will be decommissioned and the land returned to agricultural use.

Mark Allsop from Yorkshire Water said: “This is a substantial investment in the Withernsea area and we’ve previously given assurances that the new treatment works is not expected to have any impact on residents in respect of noise and odour.”