A Wessex Water spokesman said: “This a known issue caused by high groundwater which, unlike rainfall that stops relatively quickly, continues for days or even months. None of these overflows cause rivers to fail to meet ecological standards.
Water minister Rebecca Pow said the Government is prosecuting water companies that illegally pollute while raising the penalties to an unlimited level and requiring more monitoring of sewage dumping. Feargal Sharkey, the punk rock singer-turned-river campaigner, told BBC Breakfast that water companies have already received enough money from customers to fix the sewage issue and therefore bills should not have to go up in consequence.
“So the question we should be asking is, what happened to the money? Where did it go? It clearly wasn’t spent on the sewage system, and can we have a refund?