A TORY councillor has branded sewage discharges “one of the biggest scandals of our generation” after it was revealed bathers were warned not to swim in Thorpe Bay.

At a full council meeting on Thursday, David Garston called for action after it emerged a “no swim” warning was put in place on July 5.

The Environment Agency has confirmed “heavy rainfall” led to the temporary warning which has now been lifted.

Lydia Hyde, Labour Southend councillor responsible for climate, environment and waste, said: “It’s frustrating that we can’t take more action than we can to address it because the impact is on our coastline. It is for our residents and for our tourism trade and I think the sewage scandal is possibly one of the biggest scandals of our generation. The new Government has already committed to taking action on it and I look forward to that.”

Mr Garston, who represents Prittlewell on Southend Council, called for councillors to be kept up to date with water quality alerts.

The Conservative councillor for Prittlewell Ward, said: “We’ve just started the summer season, the schools are breaking up and here we are when possibly swimmers won’t be allowed to swim.”

Thorpe Bay beach missed out on a Blue Flag award this year after E-coli was found during one water quality test.

Ms Hyde said Southend has 134 outflow pipes. Anglian Water is responsible for 66 of them and another 66 fall under Southend Council’s remit. Two more belong to the Environment Agency.

Most of the pipes are for rainfall run off. Eight are combined sewage outflows belonging to Anglian Water.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “A Pollution Risk Forecast was issued for Southend bathing waters on Friday July 5 due to heavy rainfall. The guidance was temporary and is no longer in force.

“Throughout the bathing season, the Environment Agency makes daily pollution risk forecasts for a number of bathing waters, where water quality may be temporarily reduced due to factors such as heavy rainfall.”