Freedom of information request reveals Storm Overflow Taskforce met only once in 2022

A Freedom of Information request issued by Good Law Project has found the Storm Overflow Taskforce created by Defra in 2020 as part of the strategy to address untreated sewage discharges from storm drains met only once in the April 2022 to April 2023 year.

The legal campaigner reported 30 August 2022 was the only date the group met that year, despite its terms of reference specifying fortnightly meets.

It also published Defra’s comment in response: “Our taskforce delivered exactly what it set out to do – develop proposals to significantly reduce the frequency and impact of sewage discharges from storm overflows.

“This was delivered through our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, which was published in August 2022 and will require the largest infrastructure programme in water company history – £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.”

• Separately last week, ENDS magazine reported that Defra and Ofwat have been issued with a "pre-action protocol" letter over failure to address sewage discharges in Whitburn, near Sunderland. The action is being taken under the Urban Wastewater Treatment Regulations by by retired engineer Robert Latimer, supported by the Environmental Law Foundation and represented by Landmark Chambers. From the report, the case appears to hinge on the definition of what ‘normal local climatic conditions’ are, and that spills from Northumbrian Water’s Whitburn interceptor tunnel have happened more frequently than the "exceptional" conditions that justify them.