DEPUTY Leader of BCP Council Philip Broadhead has said “enough is enough” with the “absolutely unacceptable” spilling of sewage off Boscombe pier.

However, Wessex Water has insisted that there is misinformation spreading on the topic and it has only used the overflow once in the past 30 days.

That was for 20 minutes for the storm overflow – which is used to protect homes from flooding when there is a large amount of rainfall.

Cllr Broadhead was responding to a question by a resident in a live question and answer session on social media on Wednesday.

“It is absolutely unacceptable we’re in the position we have at the moment where in certain limited cases sewage is being pumped into the coastline," he said.

“Frankly we’re in a position of saying enough is enough now.”

The deputy leader said the authority is “not taking a no for an answer” adding that it is not BCP Council’s responsibility but that of Wessex Water.

With portfolio holders, councillors and all the relevant aspects of the council said to be engaging “really strongly” with the water company on an issue which “is very much top of the agenda".

Wessex Water said part of the problem was incorrect information that had spread around, and claimed residents' frustrations were based on that.

A spokesman for the organisation said: “Unfortunately much of the information circulating on social media and mentioned in the conversation during the live stream to the council is incorrect.

“The perception that sewage is being regularly ‘pumped into the coastline’ is not the case at all.

“Storm overflows are occasionally used to protect properties from flooding, and these occasionally release heavily diluted wastewater more than half a kilometre out to sea during some heavy rainfall events.

“During the last 30 days the overflow at Boscombe was in operation once for around 20 minutes during a deluge of rainfall.”

However, the water company was unable to answer how much sewage was pumped off in those twenty minutes and added that there was a misunderstanding in the public domain over red flag use.

“There is confusion locally that every time a red flag goes up on Boscombe beach is because of a sewage discharge, which is simply not the case.

“Added to this is that local people occasionally see brown water, which is sometimes associated with sewage, when in fact it’s from surface water run-off from highway drains.”

Wessex Water said Boscombe was the only beach in Bournemouth that had been signed up by BCP Council to receive pollution risk forecasts from the Environment Agency.

“The red flags are being displayed on the back of these forecasts based on predicted wind, tides and rainfall as well as sunlight and seasonality.

“They do not account for storm overflow operations, which are used occasionally during heavy rainfall to protect properties from flooding.

“We have been working with the council to correct some of this miscommunication which is unhelpful for beachgoers, business owners and local people.

“In an ideal world we wouldn’t have storm overflows or combined sewer systems, but many sewers were laid hundreds of years ago with areas, including town centres, built on top of the network of pipes.

“To upgrade the system is simply not feasible without demolishing buildings, causing serious disruption, and investing substantial sums of money.

“There is a risk that with a growing population and climate change affecting weather patterns, the use of storm overflows could increase.

“That’s why we are calling on the government to rule that all new developments cannot connect their surface water drainage to sewers that have sewage in them.”

Cllr Broadhead said a long term solution was needed.

Speaking on the livestream, he said: “There’s a long term solution that we need to find as the population grows.

“But, it is clear in the short term this is a totally unacceptable situation and we’re using every tool that we can to try to fix that as soon as possible.”