AN INNOVATIVE new scheme could improve Southend’s water quality - thanks to the use of mushrooms.

Southend Council is set to be first local authority in the UK to trial the use of mycelium - a type of fungus - in a bid to filter sewage out of water.

Lydia Hyde, councillor for the environment, revealed the fungus will be used initially in water in Benfleet Creek and if successful could be rolled out in other waterways.

The fungal mycelium - a thread-like network of cells - would be used to filter out pollutants and micro-organisms contaminating water.

Speaking at a council meeting on Thursday, Ms Hyde said: “There’s something truly innovative happening in Southend. We are going to be the first council in the UK that’s going to be trialling the use of mycelium, a mushroom effectively, in the Benfleet Creek to look at filtering of sewage release.

“It won’t be our sewage releases. It will be the ones that come down from Canvey and this mycelium can filter it out. That’s going to have a huge, positive impact on the water quality along our coast.”

Southend waters have been contaminated with sewage outflows released when rainwater overcomes the city’s drainage systems.

However, Ms Hyde hinted other measures were in the pipeline that could “showcase” Southend as a place of high water quality.

She said: “I have on numerous occasions met with Anglian Water and had detailed conversations about where are we in terms of improving sewage releases along Southend and I’m pleased to say I’ve managed to secure, with brilliant work from our officers, some real commitments that we’ll be able to detail around some really exciting stuff.

“Effectively, Southend is going to be the exemplar, the showcase place, for tackling water quality.”

The scheme is being organised by Catchment to Coast - one of 25 DEFRA-funded Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme projects which will reduce flood risk, coastal erosion and improve drought tolerance in Southend and Thurrock.

Ms Hyde was speaking in response to a question from Meg Richardson asking if water quality summits between Anglian Water and the council would continue.

She said they would and the next one, attended by Southend’s two new MPs, would take place on November 1, and would be attended by Ofwat. She added Thorpe Hall Avenue, which has suffered a number of floods in recent months would be a priority.