Parish councils affected by Southern Water pumping sewage into Pillhill Brook have pledged “to hold their feet to the fire” after a meeting in which they said the firm agreed to make changes to its operations.

Seven parish councils, including Thruxton, Monxton and Abbotts Ann, came together in April to demand change after signs advising residents to “avoid contact with the water” following the pumping of treated sewage into the chalk stream. While the water company said that this was an emergency, campaigners said it resulted from ‘a lack of investment’.

The affected parish councils said Southern Water has now pledged to improve its operations in the area after meeting with them. Tim Grimshaw, who represents the councils, told the Advertiser: “We’ve followed up with them once and we’ll do so again at the end of July to keep progress going on the meetings. We want to meet with senior management again in mid-September to review progress and keep pressure on.

“It’s important that they follow through. It feels like a positive place to be at the moment but we need to hold their feet to the fire.”

The Advertiser revealed in April that Southern Water had been pumping sewage, treated with filters and UV light, into the stream. This is authorised in emergencies to prevent loss of service or flooding, but campaigners had argued they had “the guise of emergency works” only, and had been an issue for over 12 years.

Residents and businesses described the “very troubling” impact of the pumping on their lives, with the seven parish councils demanding the water provider agree to six commitments in the area, including “major investment” in sewerage systems in the area, the end of regular overpumping and guaranteeing the area’s water quality.

Tim said that a meeting between Southern Water’s director of operations and the chairs of the seven parish councils had been “positive”, with a number of agreements between both sides.

He said: “They recognised overpumping has caused significant disruption around the water catchment area, and that they have a trade-off between tankering and fixing the pipes, which would ensure inundation is not the problem it is.

“They committed in the meeting that before the next groundwater season they would line the pipes between East Cholderton and upstream to Kimpton where they’ve done some electroscan surveys and they need to do some more to determine where the principal damage is so they can then line those to prevent water coming out or in.”

Tim said that Southern Water also committed to ensure its works were more friendly to nearby residents, with plans to run pumping stations such as East Cholderton on mains electricity, and with ground level lighting, to reduce the noise, light and emissions that were complained about by neighbouring residents.

While the company carries out preliminary steps of this work, the parish councils are hopeful that by the time mid-September comes around, the issues with the past will be able to be forgotten.