United Utilities has today published a road map showing how it will deliver cleaner rivers, beaches and lakes across the North West – the biggest investment of its kind in the UK.
By 2050 the goal is to ensure that storm overflows, the relief points that prevent sewers from backing up and flooding homes and businesses in heavy rain, each operate less than 10 times a year.
The Storm Overflow Reduction Plan, expected to cost some £19 billion in the North West region alone, will meet the new requirements of the Environment Act 2021, bringing a massive reduction in sewer pollution entering the region’s waterways. Work has already started at some of the highest priority sites and by 2030 more than 430 storm overflows will be improved.
Jo Harrison, Asset Management Director at United Utilities, said: “At United Utilities, our purpose is very clear – we don’t just supply water, we also want to make the North West greener, stronger and healthier.
“The multi-billion pound programme we are now embarking upon will see the biggest overhaul of the region’s sewer network in a century. Not only is this now enshrined in law, it is what our customers expect and it’s the right thing to do.”
Today a dashboard has been published showing the locations of every storm overflow in the UK, with a timescale for achieving the target of 10 operations a year. The first phase of the Storm Overflow Reduction Plan will take place up to 2030, and will involve £3 billion of improvements at 437 sites across the North West.
Some schemes in the Greater Manchester area are already underway including Atherton where a storm storage tank has been built beneath Vulcan Park. The £5m scheme is already reducing storm spills into Collier Brook and the River Glaze and at Worsley, where works have now been completed on a 500,000 cubic metre sorage tank to help reduce storm overflows into Astley Brook
Works are also underway at other sites including Sunny Bank Road near Bury, where a £2.5m project began in October 2023 to install a new underground storage tank.
The new storm tank holds 500,000 litres and will help to reduce the number of times the storm overflow operates during periods of heavy rainfall, improving water quality in Parr Brook and River Roch
While in Bolton, £38 million to reduce the amount of times that storm overflows operate in heavy rainfall from sites in Astley Bridge, Dunscar Bridge and Firwood industrial estate and at Nuttall Park, Ramsbottom, construction is underway on an underground storm water storage tank that will be capable of holding up to 3.5 million litres of water.
