The Lympstone Water Quality Group, our Water Guardians, and other residents have been working hard to protect our precious brook and estuary, and progress is being made. But, sadly, we’re facing major obstacles. This article is a quick update on the positive progress but focuses more on the obstacles and next steps.
Progress includes: working with landowners to develop nature-based solutions; submitting bids for substantial funding; bringing more attention to the water quality in the estuary and the contribution of pollutants from the various side streams; and continuing the great work of the Water Guardians and other residents in monitoring the brook.
The major obstacles are associated with the failure of government systems to address the broad range of water pollution risks – not just the public sewage system, which after watching ‘Dirty Business’ on Channel 4, you will know has been a major scandal – but also the various other sources of pollution such as roads, large scale developments, and agriculture. Devon County Council’s Dinan Way Extension project in Lympstone has caused significant sediment pollution in the Wotton Brook, Mill Leat and Pond, and Exe Estuary during 2025 and 2026 (see photos). The excessive sediment smothers aquatic habitats and organisms, and can carry chemicals and nutrients, which disrupt the food chain. It also damages infrastructure. See the link for more information. Effective control measures should have been in place at the very start of the road construction, in January 2025, to both prevent surface water runoff, and to contain and treat it. This was a condition of the planning permission. But an approved drainage system wasn’t implemented until the summer of 2025 after major sediment pollution in April 2025. The latter resulted in a warning letter from the Environment Agency (EA) and notification of a planning breach. It didn’t stop there. Further pollution occurred in August and December 2025, and continued in early 2026. We continued to monitor and report the pollution to DCC and the EA, but we received little response from DCC, and the EA treated it as a low priority. The EA gave approval for a treatment system in January 2026 but, despite some improvement, pollution continued during heavy rainfall. Probably more is to come.
Since late 2023, we’ve tried hard to engage with DCC in a partnership approach because we recognised the risks from both the road construction and operation (see link to a report on highway runoff pollution). We and others in the community understand the specific local risks, and we made several practical suggestions. But, despite some minor improvements to the permanent drainage design, both DCC and its contractor, Octavius, have ignored our concerns and suggestions, and refused to work in partnership. This shouldn’t have happened in a major public project. National and local government strategies are full of words about working collaboratively with communities and taking a holistic, integrated approach to climate change. But this clearly isn’t happening in practice. We’ve investigated the root causes of the problems with the road project, and they are clear to see: (1) lack of awareness and accountability at senior levels, (2) lack of robust assessments of water pollution risks at the project planning stage, and (3) no involvement of the local community. The same applies to other developments in Lympstone. The planning system is failing to address water quality issues. This is a critical time for our water environment, and we all need to work together in partnership. This should include the government organisations but, even if this continues to be a struggle, we should work together locally to develop practical solutions which bring multiple benefits.
We’re planning to arrange an event in late spring to discuss it. By then, we should know the outcome of our funding bids, and the options being proposed by SWW to reduce sewer overflows in the
estuary (the ‘AMP8’ project). In the meantime, please keep an eye on the brook and estuary, and report any pollution or suspected pollution (with photos and videos) to us and the Environment Agency (Tel. 0800 807060).
Our main contact numbers are 07855 344386 and 07792 136638.
Lympstone Water Quality Group & Water Guardians
