LONDON, Sept. 8 -- The government of the United Kingdom issued the following news:

* Rawsewage was discharged into the Fylde coastline for overa total of35 hours affecting popular tourist locations across Blackpool,Lythamand Fleetwood. * 'No bathing' advice issued across all eight designated bathing waters, with testing during the incident indicative of E. coli.

United Utilities Water Limited has been hit with £964,225 in fines and costs at Preston Magistrates' Court today (8 September) afterpleading guilty to five environmental permit offences following a major pollution incident in Lancashire.

The offences followed aserious environmentalincident between 11and 22June 2023, when raw sewage was discharged into the Irish Seaalong the Fylde Coastfrom three coastal pumping stations for more than 35 hours in totalover several days.

Sewage was reported on beaches and in marine recreational facilitiesincluding Fleetwood baths, whileUnited UtilitiesWater Limited'sown modelling showed a sewage plume had touched seven bathing waters and significantlyimpactedbathing water quality in the hours following the spills.

As a result, the Environment Agency issued 'no bathing' advice across all eight designated bathing waters along the affected coastline, whilesampling carried out during the incident by a trained citizen scientist was also indicative of the presence of E. coli.

Three shellfish beds were also temporarily closed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) due to concerns for public health.

Significant impact on holiday hotspots

Communities and businesses along the coast wereimpactedsignificantly by the contamination withpopular tourist destinations including Blackpool and St Annesamong thosebadly affected. In Blackpool alone, summer visitor numbers fell by hundreds of thousands compared with the previous year.

An Environment Agency investigation found that the incident began following the partial collapse of a final effluent pipe at Fleetwood Wastewater Treatment Works, which reduced the amount of sewage the site could receive and caused sewage to back up through the wider system.

Following periods of rainfall, sewage wassubsequentlydischarged from three coastal pumping stations at Manchester Square, Anchorsholme and Chatsworth Avenue.

United UtilitiesWater Limited'senvironmental permits set strict conditions on when sewage could be discharged from the pumping stations.

Further investigation into flow and spill data provided by the companyfound those conditions had not been met when the spills took place.

Thecompanyadmitted the breaches when interviewed under caution and pleaded guilty tofive offencesduring a court hearingon 22 April 2026.

Andy Brown, Environment Agency's Water Regulation Manager said:

This was an unacceptable pollution incident which had far-reaching consequences for residents and businesses along the Fylde Coast.

Our investigation found thatUnited UtilitiesWater Limiteddischarged sewage outside the conditions of its environmental permits. The company admitted those breaches, andtoday's fine reflects the seriousness of the offences and the harm caused.

Water companies have a fundamental responsibility toproperly managetheir assets andcomply withthe environmental permits designed to protect our rivers,seasand communities. When theyfail todo so, we will hold them to account

We will continue to rigorously regulate the water industry, investigate breaches and take action against companies that fail to meet their environmental obligations."

In the aftermath of the incident,United UtilitiesWater Limitedconstructed a two-kilometre temporary bypass around the damaged pipe, installedadditionalpumpingequipmentand used tankers to transport wastewater to other treatment works. The damaged pipe wassubsequentlyrepaired and the Fleetwood site returned to full service.

The company also made a voluntary payment of £250,000 to Blackpool Council after images of the iconic tower were used alongside media reports of the incident.

The council were in the middle of a high-paid advertising push for tourism, and this significantly harmed the image of the area.

United UtilitiesWater Limitedhas put the cost of responding to and repairing the original incident at around £38 million and has since undertaken further work to improve the resilience of the wastewater network along the Fylde Coast.

Further information

* United Utilities Water Limited pleaded guilty to five offences under Regulation 38(2) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 for breaches of environmental permit conditions. * The offences relate to discharges from Manchester Square, Anchorsholme and Chatsworth Avenue pumping stations between 11and 22June 2023. * The permits allow sewage to be discharged from the pumping stations once flows reaching Fleetwood Wastewater Treatment Works have reached 2,300 litres per secondand at certain points of the year. Environment Agency analysis of data supplied by United Utilities found this threshold had not been reached when the spills occurred. * The Environment Agency classified the incident as Category 1.United UtilitiesWater Limitedaccepted this classification. * United UtilitiesWater Limitedwas interviewed under caution by the Environment Agency on 26 November 2024, when the company admitted the permit breaches. * United UtilitiesWater Limited'sinvestigation concluded that excessive external loading caused the partial collapse of the final effluent pipe. The company said there had been nopreviouswarning of the failure throughphysical inspections or telemetry. * The Environment Agency classified the incident as Category 1 under its Common Incident Classification Scheme (CICS), which United Utilities accepted. This is separate from the harm categories considered by the court under the environmental offences sentencing guideline. * For sentencing, the Environment Agency submitted that United Utilities' offending amounted to reckless culpability and Harm Category 1. * UnitedUtilities Water Limited is classed as a Very Large Organisation for sentencing purposes and has an annual turnover of approximately £2.6 billion. * United UtilitiesWater Limitedwas fined £900,000, ordered to pay £62,225 in Environment Agency prosecution costs and a victim surcharge of £2000. * The Environment Agency sought recovery ofthecosts of bringing the prosecution.

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