A Bracknell resident has hit out after noticing a large amount of pollution in a popular beauty spot.

Sinisa Horvat was walking in Cabbage Hill on August 3 when he witnessed gallons of ‘oily sewage flowing into the river’.

This comes as Thames Water is taken to task by Bracknell Forest Council for excessive sewage discharges into rivers and waterways.

The Priestwood neighbor said: “This needs to be investigated. I was standing watching it for five to ten minutes and the sewage was just continuously flowing into the Cut."

The Cut is a prominent waterway that travels the length and breadth of Bracknell Forest. Unfortunately, due to the nearby Bracknell Water Treatment Works, the river is often used to discharge sewage water into the waterway.

In 2022, The Cut was polluted 42 times by a sewer storm overspill totaling 463.53 hours.

Bracknell Forest Council recently voted unanimously to recommend that the scrutiny commission “commits to work with other Local Authorities across the Thames Valley to challenge the failures of Thames Water to collectively minimize the environmental damage we are all facing.”

After contacting Thames Water, a spokesperson stated that the latest storm overflow from the treatment centre was on Saturday, August 5.

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “Our EDM map indicates on Saturday 5 August, diluted wastewater was discharged into The Cut for 6 hours from our Bracknell sewage treatment works.  

“Taking action to improve the health of rivers is a key focus for us and we have planned investment in our local sewage treatment works to reduce the need for untreated discharges. This includes an upgrade to Bracknell sewage treatment works to be completed by 2026.    

“We are the first company to provide alerts for inland waters and this ‘near real-time’ data is available to customers as a map on our website. This continues to be updated with information on improvements being planned for more than 250 sites across our region. 

“We want to lead the way with this transparent approach to data and the alerts will be available through an open data platform for third parties, such as swimming and environmental groups, to use."