Following our recent open letter to Kemi Badenoch MP regarding sewage discharges from Takeley Wastewater Treatment Works (TWwTW), we have now received a response.
Mrs Badenoch confirmed that she will raise the matters highlighted by TSAG with both the Environment Agency and Thames Water and will contact us again once she has received their responses.
Whilst we welcome this, there were a number of points within her response which we felt needed clarification, particularly regarding the capacity of TWwTW and the wording of the recently adopted Uttlesford Local Plan.
We have therefore responded with further evidence, including Thames Water’s own statements regarding the inability of the existing sewage treatment infrastructure to accommodate the needs of the Land North of Taylor’s Farm development.
The full response from Kemi Badenoch MP and TSAG’s reply can be read below.
Response from Kemi Badenoch MP – 17 September 2026
Thank you for writing to me on behalf of Takeley Street Action Group.
I met representatives of the Environment Agency last week to discuss this and a number of other environmental issues affecting communities across North West Essex. I will now take the matters you have raised up with the Environment Agency again, as well as with Thames Water, and seek their response.
There is an important distinction between the number and duration of storm overflow events and establishing that a treatment works is incapable of accommodating further development. Storm overflows are regulated through environmental permits, and the Environment Agency is responsible for assessing compliance and environmental impact. The figures you cite are clearly concerning, but they do not in themselves establish that Takeley Wastewater Treatment Works is operating unlawfully or that it is incapable of accepting any further flows.
Similarly, while the prolonged dry weather is relevant context, it is not possible simply to infer from a rolling 12-month figure that the number or duration of discharges would necessarily have been substantially greater in different weather conditions.
I am also aware of the wording in Uttlesford’s adopted Local Plan concerning wastewater from the Land North of Taylors Farm allocation and the preference for discharge to Bishop’s Stortford Wastewater Treatment Works. UTT/25/2786/OP remains a live planning application, so I cannot seek to determine its merits or substitute my judgement for the Council and statutory consultees. The relationship between the proposed development and the wastewater infrastructure identified in the Local Plan is, however, plainly something that will need to be properly addressed through the planning process.
Thames Water states that it completed an upgrade at Takeley in 2025 to improve the quality of treated effluent, while also indicating that the site is not expected to meet all Government storm overflow targets until 2045–2050. I agree that residents are entitled to expect progress in reducing sewage discharges well before then.
More broadly, I do not believe nationalisation of the water industry is the answer. Privatisation has enabled very substantial private investment in water infrastructure, and returning the industry to public ownership would impose significant costs on taxpayers while doing nothing by itself to resolve the immediate infrastructure problems you have highlighted.
The previous Conservative Government strengthened the powers available to regulators through the Environment Act 2021 and introduced unlimited financial penalties for environmental offences. Water companies must be held to account when they fall short, while ensuring the investment required to improve infrastructure continues.
I will be back in touch once I have received responses from the Environment Agency and Thames Water.
Kind regards,
Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP
TSAG Response to Kemi Badenoch MP – 23 September 2026
Dear Ms Badenoch
Thank you for your timely response which we will share with our members.
We did not expect you to comment directly on a live planning application albeit other Members of Parliament in neighbouring constituencies have taken a positive stance against development unacceptable to their local community and voters.
We specifically raised the issue of sewage discharge to Takeley Wastewater Treatment Works (TWwTW) as a live example of how significant planned development with a lack of infrastructure to support it is potentially damaging to the health and wellbeing of our communities.
We note your comments about the Local Plan (LP), but please be aware the Planning Application for Land North of Taylors Farm (LNTF) is materially different from the submission examined by the Planning Inspectorate and subsequently adopted in the Local Plan.
You said that you were aware of the wording in the LP, stating:
“I am also aware of the wording in Uttlesford’s adopted Local Plan concerning wastewater from the Land North of Taylors Farm allocation and the preference for discharge to Bishop’s Stortford Wastewater Treatment Works.”
In fact, the LP wording (Uttlesford Local Plan Appendices 2 to 4 Site Development Templates Uttlesford Local Plan 2021 – 2041 page 30) is unequivocal in stating:
“Wastewater should be discharged to the Bishops Stortford Waste Water
Treatment Works”.
Bishops Stortford Treatment Works was specified by UDC to ensure the “Good Ecological Status of watercourses linked to the Takeley Wastewater Treatment Works”. The implication is that there are serious ecological issues should yet more wastewater be pumped via TWwTW.
We note your response concerning the upgrade in 2025 to TWwTW:
“Thames Water states that it completed an upgrade at Takeley in 2025 to improve the quality of treated effluent”.
Whatever upgrade Thames Water undertook in 2025, they have admitted that they cannot cope with the LNTF development and by implication the extensive proposed development of circa 1500 houses and a school planned for Takeley. Whilst the quality of the treated effluent may have improved Thames continues to dump untreated sewage in our rivers when levels exceed capacity.
We would not expect you to know every detail relating to every planning application in Uttlesford. You are therefore unlikely to be aware that Thames Water have categorically stated page 199 of 203 of FRA (Site Specific Flood Risk Assessment Oct 2025) in relation to LNTF.
“We’ve assessed your foul water proposals and concluded that unfortunately we’re unable to meet the needs of your full development at this time”.
Thames water repeated this on 28th May 2026 – just over three months ago -, stating unequivocally that Takeley Wastewater Treatment Works does NOT have the capacity to accept further flows.
“Thames Water has identified an inability of the existing SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS infrastructure to accommodate the needs of this development proposal”.
You further advised that Thames Water indicated:
“…that the site is not expected to meet all Government storm overflow targets until 2045–2050”.
It appears that Developer neglected to mention that Thames Water was not even clear “whether connection to the sewer work is even possible”.
This implies not only that residents have to put up with unacceptable levels of raw sewage being dumped in our rivers, but that it is acceptable to put a range of developments locally that will further increase the pressure for almost 25 years, potentially putting health at risk.
Whilst statistical trends related to climate change continue to be a matter of debate, it is an inescapable fact that a development the size of Land North of Taylors Farm, coupled with an additional 1500 houses and a new school WILL put significant pressure on existing infrastructure that demonstrably cannot cope.
Please note that Takeley Street Action Group will not take a political stance. Our concerns are at local level and the impact on your constituents and voters from this proposed industrial site and other strategic sites in the newly adopted Plan. Nationalisation of the water industry is one such issue that is not in our remit. Neither is the legality of the actions by Thames Water. You say that:
“Water companies must be held to account when they fall short, while ensuring the investment required to improve infrastructure continues”.
This statement is welcomed, but as constituents and voters, we see no evidence of this happening at present or in the foreseeable future.