CUMBERLAND council leader Mark Fryer has reacted to new figures released from the Environment Agency which show the extent to which the former borough of Allerdale's waterways are being affected by overflows from water company United Utilities.

Monitoring was carried out on 105 out of 107 storm overflows in the Allerdale District throughout 2022, with a total of 6,774 spills counted for a total duration of 55,662 hours.

Figures for the Dean Village Ww Pumping Station (United Utilities) show that in 2022, this sewer storm overflow spilled 114 times for a total of 1078.81 hours , discharging into the Near Stock Beck A Tributary Of The River Marron.


The reason why an overflow may have high spill counts in that period was down to :Not Asset Maintenance - Hydraulic Capacity.

Talking about the figures, Cumberland Council Leader Mark Fryer said: “I was listening to the debate last week and it’s an unbelievably complex issue, on the one hand we have United Utilities and others who clearly haven’t over a long period of time invested in the infrastructure.

“It’s unacceptable in this modern age where we have literally got a Victorian infrastructure that’s been bolted on and bolted on and bolted on by development.

“It’s wrong that across the whole of Cumberland are occurring almost on a daily basis if not more, many councillors on all sides have spoken about this to me and it will be part of our programme going forward, talking with United Utilities and others about how they are damaging our environment."

A spokesperson for United Utilities said: “We are committed to delivering a step change in performance, having reduced the operation of storm overflows by a third since 2020, and we know there is much more to do.

“We have ambitious plans to deliver one of the largest environmental improvement programmes in the country and we now have approval to fast track that and begin to deliver £900 million of improvements early, bringing region wide benefits, reducing storm overflows, creating jobs, and boosting the resilience of local communities and the environment.”