Yorkshire Water's £1.5m Ripon sewage scheme delivered 43% of the promised cut

When Yorkshire Water announced a £1.5 million sewerage scheme for the River Ure in Ripon in 2024, it said the work would cut storm overflow discharges by about 75%. The scheme targeted the Clock Tower combined sewer overflow near the Ripon by-pass bridge. The company has now admitted the result fell short: recorded discharges dropped from 75 in 2021 to 43 in 2025, a reduction of about 43%.

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson described the outcome as 'disappointing' but stressed that comparing individual years is complicated by rainfall, noting 2025 was a particularly dry year, which would itself have reduced discharges. Combined sewer overflows are pressure-relief points on networks that carry both wastewater and rainwater, discharging into watercourses during heavy rainfall to prevent sewage backing up into homes and streets — discharges the Environment Agency can permit in specified circumstances.

The admission landed amid growing local scrutiny. Testing by campaign group Stop Ure Pollution and the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust upstream had raised concerns about bacteria and other pollution in the river, and the Skipton and Ripon branch of the North Yorkshire Green Party submitted an Environmental Information Regulations request seeking the company's data on the Clock Tower scheme's performance. Green councillor Andy Brown called the sewage levels 'deeply disgusting' and demanded the company 'deliver the facts — straight-up and undiluted'.

The scheme underdelivered against its own published projection of a roughly 75% cut in discharges.

Rainfall can explain year-to-year swings, but the company had quantified its promise, so the gap between 75% promised and 43% delivered is its own yardstick.

Local campaigners were independently sampling the river, meaning the shortfall would be tested against outside data as well as the company's numbers.

Publishing a specific performance promise for an infrastructure scheme hands campaigners the yardstick — falling short of your own number turns an engineering shortfall into a public admission.

Yorkshire Water said it was investigating further projects in Ripon as part of a £1.5 billion programme aimed at reducing storm overflow use, and that it knows 'there is much more to do to protect local watercourses'. The Green Party's Environmental Information Regulations request seeks the company's own performance data for the Clock Tower scheme and changes in discharges after work carried out in 2025. Ripon City Council and campaign organisations said they would keep pressing for improvements.