SAS were called into action again on Monday 25th November when manholes in Quay Road, St Agnes were forced up by sewage leaving a trail of sanitary towels, condoms and 'turds' rolling down Quay Road into Trevaunance Cove.

This was the third incident in as many weeks and has left SAS, water users and local residents frothing at the mouth in anger!

Alarmed at the threat to human health and the knock on effects for water users we have been calling urgently on South West Water to provide a solution, the Environment Agency to make a prosecution and the local authority to put real time public warning notices at the beach!

Our persistence has led to work being carried out by South West Water yesterday that we have been told will solve the immediate problems of sewage and sanitary waste being forced up on to Quay Road. We will have to wait and see on that one…..! However we are still seeking to meet with the Water Company to review the operation of the works in order to identify possible other areas where further work should be undertaken.

No prosecution has yet been made by the Environment Agency but we are pushing hard for this to happen.

We have spoken with the local authority who are now planning to place public information signs up at Trevaunance Cove about the potential health risks of currently using the water. This information was not provided by the authorities at any of the 3 incidents documented despite large numbers of people using the water. Finally we took it upon ourselves to erect a notice warning people of the dangers of using Trevaunance Cove, but this should fall within the remit of a local authority.

SAS has been very active in the media on each of these incidents, which has led it to having a high media profile. Interviews have been done with Carlton TV, BBC TV Spotlight, CBBC, BBC News Online, BBC Radio Cornwall, Teletext, Pirate FM, West Britain and the Cornish Guardian. This has helped immensely in exerting pressure on the decision-makers.

We are determined to ensure South West Water provide an urgent long term solution to the problems we have been experiencing in St Agnes so that water users and residents alike can be assured of safe and clean water in the future

More information to follow………..

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