Sherborne's Very Personal Sewage Crisis

My concern over Bourton-on-the-Water's sewage treatment works continues — and it has just become more troubling. You may recall my earlier post reporting that the storm overflow at the Bourton STW had been running continuously for 42 days. Two days ago it stopped briefly, then started again. It has been switching on and off ever since. Those of you paying attention will have noticed something: there has been no rain in the last two or three days. That matters. A storm overflow that discharges without any storm is not a storm overflow at all. It is something more fundamental — a works that is failing to cope with ordinary, everyday sewage flow. Your sewage. Mine. Everyone's in the local area.

Five years of remedial work by Thames Water. Millions of pounds spent. And when you flushed the toilet this morning, your poo almost certainly ended up untreated in the River Windrush. Think about what you pay Thames Water to do: take it away, treat it properly, return clean water to the environment. They are not doing that. Your money goes somewhere else, as does your poo. The storm discharge at Bourton has been overflowing more often than not in 2026. We should be angry. We should also be more than a little embarrassed that our personal sewage is floating past the residents of Burford, Witney, and beyond. More importantly, it is killing things in the Windrush — invertebrates, fish, the river plants that have already been in serious decline for years.

Thames Water are not making this easy to see. If you visit their website showing storm overflow activity, it displays only the single most recent event. The 1,014-hour continuous discharge — 42 days, from 20 January until two days ago — has simply vanished from view. In its place: a short event of a few hours, and within 48 hours that too will disappear. The record resets. The history is buried, hidden. Anyone looking today would have no idea what has been happening since January. We know that they have a range of other monitors recording volume, concentration and other data. Even this very limited EDM data showing so called "storm overflow" events will be sat on for between one and two years - the entire 2025 data set won't be available until late 2026. That, in my mind is unacceptable when we are sending our daily poo to Bourton to be dumped straight in the river, and paying Thames Water to do so...

The discharge started again yesterday evening and ran for a few hours.

You can check for yourself here: [Thames Water EDM map — Bourton-on-the-Water]

I am now monitoring that page almost hourly, watching the works discharge on and off through the day with no storm rainfall, no rainfall at all, to justify it. I am recording every event, building a data-strong case, and preparing to present it to the Windrush Catchment Partnership at a meeting later this month. Thames Water will have a representative in the room.

I would very much welcome a member of the Support Group attending to show that this community is watching. Your presence would send a signal that matters.

You should note too that the target that Thames Water have given themselves to solve this overflow problem is 2050. I expect I'll be dead by then. The Windrush river will be dead too.

One last thing. I would genuinely like to know how fierce you think I should be at that meeting. The evidence is substantial. The case is clear. The question is how hard to push. Let me know in the comments. "Mind where you poo."