Campaigners gather to urge water firm to reduce spills

DOZENS of people gathered at a wastewater treatment works and left messages urging Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water to reduce spills which end up in the sea.

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Posters and messages were attached to the gates of the treatment works at Bishopston, Gower, expressing frustration and calling on the utility to better future-proof its infrastructure.

It was organised by resident David Haines-Hanham, of Brandy Cove Road, who said he was paddle-boarding with his daughter Mabli a few years ago when they noticed a brown slick in the sea at Brandy Cove, south of Bishopston.

He claimed the slick was above an outfall pipe which he said extended around 250m into the sea at Brandy Cove at high tide, and said the smell was "unmistakeable".

He said: "We just wanted to get straight out of there."

He said on another occasion he saw a brown slick in the water at Brandy Cove around 12 hours before the arrival of a named autumn storm. He claimed it hadn't rained for two days beforehand.

Another time, he said, his young son Emlyn had a bad stomach after playing in a rockpool which retained a cloudy appearance after being stirred up, although he said he couldn't prove anything in the water was the cause of the illness.