There have been more than 120 incidents of sewage being released into the sea around Kent this month, according to figures.

One beach endured a release lasting nearly 70 hours while seven are currently under 'do not swim' warnings following heavy rainfall.

The releases from storm drains across the coast have resulted in bathing water quality being lowered in Whitstable, Tankerton, Herne Bay, Folkestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh.

Southern Water's monitoring system, Beachbuoy, confirmed there had been releases at six of those beaches – not including West Beach in Whitstable – within the last 24 hours.

They have been caused by storms and intense rainfall over the first 11 days of the month.

Overall, there have been 123 releases across the county's coasts from November 1, spanning from 10 minutes long to almost three days.

The longest was off the coast of Littlestone on Romney Marsh, with one release starting on Sunday lunchtime and only finishing this morning, lasting a total of 67 hours – more than any other beach's releases put together.

In total, the beach saw 97 hours of releases in just two incidents this month. Further up the coast, Hythe saw 64 hours of releases in 11 incidents.

'In our view, it is the worst we have seen...'

Herne Bay saw drains near two beaches release storm sewage for a total of 86 hours in 29 incidents.

A spokesman for the environmental campaigners SOS Whitstable said it was "absolutely horrified" by the volume material that had been discharged.

"In our view, it is the worst we have seen," they added.

"With over 500 releases, lasting a combined 3,800+ hours, across Kent, Sussex and Hampshire so far this month, the environmental damage being caused across the south-east is unprecedented.

"In Kent it has been particularly impactful at New Romney, where a 67 hour release began on Sunday lunchtime.

"We are equally appalled at the silence from the Conservative MPs who voted for this last year and have utterly failed to call out the damage to their own constituencies."

Katy Taylor, Southern Water’s chief customer officer, said: “As many people will have seen, we’ve experienced unprecedented stormy weather and flash flooding in early November, with more rain in the last week than we’d normally expect to see for the whole of the month.

“To stop homes, schools and businesses from flooding, our nation’s network of storm overflows act as a release value to temporarily relieve this pressure, allowing excess flows – typically made up of up to 95% rainwater – to enter rivers and the sea. This is permitted by the Environment Agency.

“Whilst this is how the system is designed to work in weather like this, we know we need to continue to work hard to improve the network.

"This is going to take time, and we are investing £2bn across five years – much of which will reduce the use of storm overflows, increase storage capacity and find ways to divert rain back to the environment naturally."