South West Water statement on Godrevy sewage

We're sorry that organisers cancelled the surfing event at Godrevy at the weekend for its 32 registered competitors.

The heavy rainfall on Saturday led to a brief, permitted overflow in line with our consents. The single overflow at Godrevy lasted about half an hour on Saturday morning. We altered beach managers via our online BeachLive service so they could act accordingly and beach users could make informed decisions as to whether to swim or surf. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. There were no subsequent alerts at Godrevy.

More than £2billion has been spent helping to clean up Devon and Cornwall's bathing waters – the biggest environmental programme of its kind in Europe - and an extra £20million is being invested this year. Unfortunately during periods of intense rainfall, the Combined Sewer system, which also takes surface water from roads, can sometimes become overloaded. We continue to work with our partners and regulators to ensure that public health is protected.