Plastic pellet pollution incident upgraded

A pollution incident where millions of plastic pellets were washed up along the Sussex and Kent coast has been upgraded, according to the Environment Agency (EA).

The beads, in the area around Camber Sands and Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, are likely to have come from a pollution spill which happened in October from a Southern Water wastewater treatment works in Eastbourne.

The EA says the incident has now been classified as a category one which is "deemed to have had a major environmental impact".

Southern Water said: "We're sorry this incident happened and we are committed to a long-term clean-up of the area."

An EA spokesperson said: "This is an active investigation, and we will not hesitate to take robust enforcement action where appropriate.

"We continue to work closely with Rother District Council and other agencies following the incident.

"The council remains the lead authority for the clean-up, and we remain ready to help should they need it."

Rother District Council said it agreed with the EA and had no further comment to make.

In a joint letter, Helena Dollimore, the MP for Hastings, Rye, and Chris Corrigan, the CEO of the Sussex Wildlife Trust, urged the EA to treat the incident with "the utmost severity", taking into account the "devastating impact of the incident on local wildlife and protected habitats".

Dollimore said: "It is only right that the EA has escalated this incident to the most serious level.

"Southern Water has a responsibility to make amends to our community for this incident and clean up their own mess.

"They made a commitment to fund a programme of nature restoration in our beautiful area, and I will hold them to that promise."

A spokesperson for Southern Water said: "We are fully cooperating with regulatory investigations and keeping both regulators and stakeholders updated."

The MP has also launched a petition to end the use of plastic beads in wastewater treatment.

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