Nearly 50 beaches in England and Wales were hit by record sewage discharges in the past couple of days after torrential downpours swept across the UK.

Data gathered by environmental campaign group Surfers Against Sewage shows there has been sewage discharge into the waters at beaches in Cornwall, Lancashire, Cornwall, Norfolk, Sussex, Essex and other parts of England and Wales.

The heavy rain led to water companies flushing storm sewage from sewer overflows into waters at numerous beaches on English coastlines.

An Ofwat spokesperson told ELN: “The public need to know they can rely on, and trust, water and wastewater companies

“Where we find that companies have fallen short, we will act – over the last five years, for example, we have imposed penalties and payments of over £250 million.

“In November 2021, we launched an unprecedented investigation into all wastewater companies, and we currently have enforcement cases open into six wastewater companies for potential failings in their sewage works. We have also pushed wastewater companies to develop and publish plans on how they are taking action now to cut the harm they cause to rivers.

“We take our responsibilities on the environment extremely seriously and are pushing companies to do the same. These issues really matter to customers, and we will keep holding companies’ feet to the fire until we see further progress.”

An Environment Agency spokesperson told ELN: “We publish daily pollution risk forecasts throughout the bathing season via the EA’s Swimfo website to indicate when bathing water quality may be temporarily reduced due to factors such as heavy rainfall, wind or the tide.

“The current risk of surface water flooding reinforces the need for robust action from water companies to reduce discharges from storm overflows. We are monitoring the current situation and supporting local authorities where needed.”