United Utilities has announced it is upgrading its wastewater treatment works in Morecambe to further improve the area’s coastal waters and beaches.
Work starts this spring on the £70 million project which will take four years to complete. The water company plans to build two large storm water storage tanks and new pumps at its Schola Green Pumping Station, upgrade Morecambe Wastewater Treatment Works at Middleton and lay a new 7km sewer pipe between the two sites. Most of the construction work required to install the pipe will be on private land.
Richard Townsend, from United Utilities, explained:
“As a contributor to the quality of Morecambe’s bathing waters, we need to make some improvements to our wastewater treatment to reduce how often storm water spills from the sewers and help ensure that the coastal waters at Morecambe Bay comply with new European Union bathing water standards.”
At Morecambe Wastewater Treatment Works, United Utilities is upgrading the existing treatment process so that it uses the latest technologies and ensures the effluent leaving the works meets Environment Agency standards.
The water company is a partner of LOVEmyBEACH, a campaign which brings together various groups, including the Environment Agency, National Farmers Union, Marine Conservation Society, British Destinations, Keep Britain Tidy and local authorities, to keep the North West’s bathing waters clean.
With the UK government demanding a 50% reduction in storm overflow spills by 2029, the era of reactive management is over. Speaking in the House of Commons on 21 July 2025, then environment secretary Steve Reed said, “This Government will cut water companies’ sewage pollution in half by the end of the decade.”
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