Yorkshire Water restarts storm overflow investment in North Yorkshire

Yorkshire Water has begun five projects across North Yorkshire to reduce the number and frequency of storm overflow discharges. 

The projects, totaling a £2.2m investment, form part of the utility’s overarching £1.5bn programme to reduce the operation of storm overflows across the region between 2025 and 2030. 

Projects in Weeton, Wass, Snape, Myton-on-Swale, and Great Barugh will see parts of the combined sewer network relined to reduce infiltration of groundwater. This will in turn reduce the amount of flow in the sewer, making storm overflow discharges less likely. 

These overflow projects are the first to get underway in North Yorkshire since the announcement of the £1.5bn programme and wider £8.3bn investment in water and wastewater services in April 2025. 

The programme follows a £180m investment over the previous two years, which saw more than 100 storm overflows upgraded throughout the region. 

Over the next few months, six additional storm overflow projects will have broken ground in North Yorkshire across: Acklam, Hebden, Malham, Sheriff Hutton, Bishop Monkton, and Skeeby. 

Liam Thomas, project manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “Our storm overflows are operating more often than we, and our customers, would like, and we’re going to be continuing our hard work into bringing the number of discharges down over the next five years. We already have a number of projects underway in Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford and Barnsley – some of which are almost finished and delivering benefits for the environment - so it’s exciting to begin to make headway in the North of the county too.”  

Contract partners, United Infrastructure, are completing the projects, which will take place in phases. Local residents will be informed of any localised disruption. 

Over 450 storm overflow discharge reduction projects will be delivered by 2030 – all of which are currently in planning and design or have already started on site. 

Liam added: “This is a significant and challenging programme of works, but one that’s vitally important for health of watercourses across the region, and one that we are absolutely committed to.” 

Previous storm overflow projects in North Yorkshire, as part of the £180m investment programme between 2023 and 2025, took place in Northallerton, Brawby, Kirkbymoorside, and Langthorne, among others. 

Storm overflows are designed to act as a relief valve for the combined sewer network, which carries both wastewater and surface water, during periods of heavy or prolonged rainfall. They discharge when the system is at capacity to prevent flows backing up and flooding homes and gardens. 

Across Yorkshire, the need for storm overflows to operate will be reduced by building new: 

• Surface water sewers, to separate surface water and wastewater so that wastewater networks aren’t impacted by bad weather 
• Underground storage tanks, to build additional capacity into the network 
• Nature-based solutions, to build additional capacity into the network 
• Sustainable drainage systems, to slow the flow of surface water into the combined network 

The storm overflow project is part of Yorkshire Water’s £8.3bn investment into its services and the environment over the next five years.