South West Water says it is "working round the clock" to repair a burst pipe that led to sewage flowing into the sea near Maenporth at the weekend.

Yesterday, the Packet reported how raw sewage had been pouring into the Budock River near Maenporth Beach after a pipe failed at the Pennance Mill waste station on Maenporth Road.

Late yesterday evening South West Water issued a statement saying it was doing everything it could to fix the problem.

A spokesperson said: “Following a report of a potential issue in Maenporth on Sunday, January 9 we immediately attended and discovered a burst rising main near Pennance Mill pumping station.

"Our teams are working around the clock to repair the burst and are using tankers to divert flows away from the site to minimise any potential impact on the environment.

"We are undertaking regular water quality sampling in the area and will continue to monitor water quality once the fix is complete to give reassurance to the local community.

"We will complete this complex repair and return the system to normal operation as soon as possible.”

The Environment Agency says it is aware of the incident and is investigating.

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: "Following reports over the weekend of South West Water’s burst sewer pipe at Pennance, near Maenporth near Falmouth, the Environment Agency attended to investigate possible pollution of the local watercourse resulting from the rupture.

"Our investigations are continuing and we have raised the issue of old rising main failures with South West Water and have asked them to ensure they have a proactive approach to asset replacement and failure detection."

Falmouth town and county councillor Alan Jewell, who runs the nearby Pennance Mill campsite, told the Packet yesterday that the pipe that had caused the problem was over 50 years old and needed replacing.

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'Sewage' pouring out of waste station near popular beach after pipe failure

Because of the pipe failure, the pumps that take the sewage away for treatment had had to be turned off and the raw sewage was leaking over the sides of the holding tank and into the Budock River.

Tankers were having to be used to ferry the waste away for treatment at Falmouth Docks but could not keep up with the amount that was leaking.