More than 4m hours of raw sewage discharges poured into rivers and seas last year, a 129% increase on the previous 12 months. Total discharges from the 14,000 storm overflows owned by English water companies that release untreated sewage into rivers and coastal waters increased by 59% to 477,972, making 2023 the worst year for sewage spills.

Pollution from emergency overflow pipes into canals, coastal waters and rivers has not always been recorded until now. Water companies in England and Wales will be required to install monitors on an additional 7,000 emergency overflow pipes used to dump sewage into the nation’s waterways, the environmental watchdog has said.

Esthwaite Lodge pumping station, which discharges into a Site of Special Scientific Interest, has no event duration monitor on the outflow, so the Agency has no idea how much sewage is being spilled into the lake.

The EA says they are reviewing the permits for Windermere, but what are they going to do about the ecological damage already done? Moreover, how can we now trust them to put permits in place that are fit for purpose, when the old ones have been shown to be woefully inadequate to protect Windermere and its rivers?

This is why we are calling for a public inquiry. The regulator is failing, and we need to know why.