Multi million-pound upgrade of Stroud sewer network

Severn Trent Water is to invest £25 million to reduce the amount of pollution into the river Frome and other local watercourses.

 This will be done by several methods:

 - Separating surface water from the sewer network,

- Installing bigger sewer pipes to create more capacity during storm events (such as heavy rainfall) and

- Creating some additional storage across the network with smart control that holds water back during large storm events before returning it back to their treatment works when the rainfall has subsided and capacity to treat it is available.

The news comes as a map was recently published showing how much raw sewage was in Stroud rivers and Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie voted against the government's sewage bill.

This project is due to start in 2022 and is expected to be completed at the end of 2023.

Severn Water Trent will be working with their Contract Partner Galliford Try to deliver these works.

A Severn Trent spokesperson had recently told the SNJ: ‘’We are absolutely passionate about river quality within our region, and we are consistently recognised as a leading performer in the sector for our environmental credentials, having recently achieved the Environment Agency’s highest four star rating.

"Overflows are predominately made up of rainwater and only account for 3.5% of rivers not achieving good status. All of our assets have agreed regulatory permits and overall, the latest EA data for our region shows that our contribution towards rivers not achieving good status is down by 9.4% and will decrease further.

“While we don’t own rivers, we absolutely want to go further and play a leading role in improving river quality in our region. Many sectors and activities impact on the quality of our rivers so whilst we continue to minimise the impact of storm overflows, we commit to continue to work with others, such as the agricultural sector, as well as educating customers to prevent wipes and sanitary products from reaching rivers."