Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth presented a report that supported the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s consideration of concerns about the cumulative impact of sewage discharge on rivers in East Hertfordshire, following a Motion agreed by Council on 22 October 2025.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that she was presenting the report jointly with the Executive Member for Wellbeing as the issues impacted upon both portfolios. The report supported the committee’s consideration of an issue of significant concern to residents - the cumulative impact of sewage discharge on rivers across East Hertfordshire.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that a motion was approved at Council in October 2025, which recognised both a responsibility to protect rivers and the growing evidence of declining water quality, driven in part by the frequency and scale of wastewater discharges.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that senior representatives from Thames Water and the Environment Agency were in attendance, and this provided an important opportunity for Members to better understand the scale of the issue, the data behind it, and the respective roles and responsibilities of those organisations in managing and regulating our water environment.

Members were advised that the session was primarily about information gathering and constructive scrutiny. It was an opportunity for Members to ask questions, test the evidence, and explore how the cumulative impacts of sewage discharge were being addressed, particularly given concerns that such events were no longer exceptional, but becoming increasingly frequent.

Members were advised that it was also important to be clear about the role of the planning system in this context. The Executive Member said that where there was clear evidence that wastewater infrastructure was inadequate, this may constitute a material consideration in planning decisions, particularly where development could lead to unacceptable environmental impacts such as deterioration in water quality.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that where Members should, however, be aware that the delivery of sewage infrastructure rests with the statutory undertaker, and national policy generally assumes that the necessary upgrades will be delivered. She said the adopted District Plan policies WAT6 (Wastewater Infrastructure) and DEL1 (Infrastructure and Service Delivery) already provided a robust basis for managing this.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that the insights gained from the session would be important in informing future work, including the preparation of the new Local Plan. The council was currently commissioning a Water Cycle Study to strengthen the evidence base and ensure the council fully understood infrastructure capacity and its impact on river health, so that future growth was properly planned, aligned with capacity, and environmentally sustainable.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth encouraged Members to use the session to engage openly and constructively with the guests from the Environment Agency and Thames Water.

The Chairman thanked representatives from Thames Water and the Environment Agency (EA) for attending and invited questions from Members.

A Member questioned whether the frequency of sewage discharges indicated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6