We’re enhancing how we treat wastewater in Pagham

We’re investing £20 million to make improvements at our Pagham site, by installing new equipment which will improve how wastewater is treated before being released into the environment.

This will ensure the treated water being discharged meets the new standards set by the Environment Agency. The upgrade will also ensure the site can treat additional flows from housing developments within the area.

To meet the new standards, we’re adding more treatment capacity to the existing wastewater treatment works. This will include new concrete tanks that provide enhanced treatment and kiosks which hold control units and help run the works. There will also be safety features installed to protect those who work at the site.

We’re creating space for the new equipment by removing earth within the site. Most of this earth is being retained and re-used onsite to help reduce the number of lorries on local roads and we’ve now removed most of what we can’t keep (which is either surplus to requirements or needs to be processed by a specialist).

We’ll also need to carry out piling, starting mid-September 2023, which involves putting concrete posts into the ground to stabilise it for the new concrete tanks being constructed. We don’t expect it to be any noisier than the existing construction works, and it will only last a few weeks and during day-time hours. We expect to complete piling early October 2023.

While your wastewater services won’t be affected, you will notice construction vehicle movement to and from the site. We’re managing lorry movements with traffic marshals located nearer to the site and staggering deliveries to help traffic flow through the local area.

We are also maintaining the public right of access to the lane, which leads to our site, throughout construction.

Although we’re past the bulk of the earth works, there will continue to be periods where a higher volume of construction traffic will be travelling to and from the site (for example, concrete and steel deliveries) but we will continue manage this to minimise the impact. 

At peak times of construction, we estimate that there will be approximately 15 site vehicles and 35 lorries, in and out of the site and we’re managing mud deposits on Summer Lane by employing a road sweeper and a wheel wash for the lorries to help reduce mud on the local roads.

We have temporary offices, car parking and facilities for the workers on site, away from residential areas.

We started work in February 2023 and anticipate that it will be completed in spring 2025.

The construction hours will generally fall between 7am and 6pm Monday to Friday and we may carry out works between 7:30am to 1pm on Saturday (only if it is necessary). There is no intention to work on Sundays or Bank Holidays.

The site won’t change too much, as it will remain within the existing boundary and the new equipment that we’re building is of a similar height to existing structures.

We have created a web page so you can see how it currently looks and how we’re changing it: southernwater.co.uk/water-for-life/improvements-in-your-area/sussex/pagham-scheme

Keep checking back as we’ll continue to add new images and drawings as they become available.

We are committed to working with you throughout the construction works in an open and collaborative way.

If our works causes you any concerns, we want to hear from you so we can put it right or improve the way we do things.

Please contact Matthew Thompson, GTB Communication and Communities Lead, Monday – Friday 9am to 5pm on 07810 655423. Alternatively, call our 24-hour contact centre on 0330 303 0368 and say you are ringing about Capital Projects Project Reference Number (PRN) 789020.

Or you can go online at: southernwater.co.uk/contact-us