Row of tankers witnessed as sewage works underway at popular beach

A row of tankers has been witnessed at a popular East Devon beach as maintenance on the sewer system takes place.

esidents in Budleigh Salterton spotted numerous tankers in the town’s Lime Kiln car park where South West Water has a pumping station.
In one video taken by resident Peter Williams, who has campaigned on sewage issues in Budleigh Salterton on behalf of the Otter Valley Association, around a dozen tankers can be seen.
In a post on Facebook, Mr Williams said the tankers are taking their cargo to the Maer Lane sewage treatment works in Exmouth, but raised concerns about this.
“That might sound like a good thing, but Maer Lane has been over capacity for the past two days, so it is dumping all the excess sewage into the sea, a few hundred metres off Straight Point firing range,” he said.
“And the prevailing current from Straight Point is Budleigh.”
He added that he felt South West Water’s lack of timely maintenance and upgrades at Budleigh has caused a “series of knock-on actions that just end up as one slow-motion car crash”.
Another resident, John Hamill, said the tankers were being used because the system “cannot cope”.
“Roll on another 700 houses,” he added, referencing the number of properties that could be built on one plot identified in East Devon’s emerging local plan on the outskirts of Exmouth and Budleigh.
South West Water’s WaterFit Live website showed most of Exmouth’s storm overflows activated at the time of publishing, while only one of Budleigh Salterton’s had been active in the prior 24 hours.
“Our teams are working on essential maintenance at our Lime Kilns pumping station – at times, we use tankers to control flows which helps us to protect the environment,” a spokesperson for South West Water said.
“We would like to thank residents for their patience while we complete this essential work.”
The appearance of the tankers comes less than two weeks after it emerged that Budleigh Salterton beach was at risk of losing its coveted Blue Flag Award.
The award is based on a range of criteria, but a crucial one relates to the requirement for water quality to be ‘excellent’.
But the latest Environment Agency data shows Budleigh’s water quality has fallen to ‘good’.
At the time, South West Water said there had been 100 fewer sewer spills in 2025 than last year. Plus, while sewage spills can be a contributor to poorer water quality, other factors can also be to blame, including agricultural run-off, animal effluence, or pollution from urban sources.
SWW’s website states it has invested around £3.6 million to reduce the number of spills from its storm overflows in the town, with Meadow Road storm overflow improved in March 2022, and “major work” to clean the 7.7 kilometre long rising main from Lime Kilns pumping station to Maer Lane sewage treatment works had been completed in November 2023.
It noted it was relining sewers and removing land drains to reduce the volume of water in the network, which should help reduce storm overflows. This work started in July 2024.
The Lime Kiln storm overflow had 212 spills in 2024, well above the 118 in 2023 and the 31 in 2022.