A water company has come under fire for failing to meet pumping speeds at its waste water stations - potentially leading to more raw sewage being dumped in the sea.

Southern Water has been accused of failing to maintain a key pumping station in Thanet, in breach of its permit.

It comes after a power outage at the firm’s pumping station in Broadstairs saw “unscreened waste water” flow into the sea earlier this month.

Advice not to swim off 14 beaches between Margate and Ramsgate remained in place for 10 days – with Joss Bay being the last to reopen.

Now new data has been revealed, suggesting Southern Water could be in breach of its licence which allows it to discharge of waste due to inefficient pumping speeds.

An environmental information request submitted by Margate councillor Rob Yates (Lab) revealed the Foreness Point pumping station has failed to meet permitted pumping speeds on a total of 23 occasions – equivalent to five days – over the past three years during periods of heavy rain.

During such periods it is required that the pumping station releases waste water at a minimum of 809 litres per second to Weatherless water centre for treatment.

This is required before Southern Water is allowed to discharge waste water into the sea under their permit.

A failure to meet these speeds can result in additional sewage being dumped into the sea in periods of heavy rain.

Cllr Yates said: “This is strong evidence that Southern Water have been failing to maintain the key Thanet pumping station and may have breached their permit to operate, which has resulted in additional sewage being dumped into our coastal waters.

"The most recent breach of pumping speeds came this month, on October 5, so I would like to know why Southern Water are still not able to meet their permitted pumping speeds that they signed up to in 2005.

"Why is it so difficult to ensure these pumps are working when they signed up to an agreement that required them to do just that?"

He added: "From my reading of the permit, Southern Water are only allowed to fail to meet these pumping speeds under two conditions, the first is that they suffer an 'electrical power failure' and the other is if an 'unavoidable mechanical or electrical breakdown' has occurred.

"Seeing as we have only heard about one electrical power failure recently, are we to believe that it is good operational practice for a pumping station to have four unavoidable breakdowns over a three-year period, bearing in mind these incidents only occur during periods of heavy rain which are very infrequent."

The Labour councillor said the "results speak volumes" and called for the company to be taken back into public ownership.

"Private water companies have paid their shareholders £60bn since they were privatised. It is time for a serious conversation about bringing water back into public ownership, investing in our own infrastructure and stopping the dumping of raw sewage along our coastline," he added.

Last weekend campaigners from Save our NHS in Kent (Sonik) marched through Margate calling for Southern Water to stop its discharges.

More demonstrations are set to take place and Cllr Yates will be in attendance.

"This Saturday I will be joining others at the Save Our Seas protest in Ramsgate in demanding action is taken now," he said.

"If there are others concerned with private water companies dumping sewage into their neighbourhoods then I suggest they request a copy of the relevant permit for their nearest pumping station from the Environment Agency, and submit Freedom of Information requests to their water companies to find out just how many 'non-compliant' events have occurred."

Southern Water has responded to say it was being "completely open and transparent with its data" which is published in real time on Beachbuoy.

A Southern Water spokeswoman said: "Unfortunately there are occasions when our releases are unconsented.

"We know this is unacceptable to our customers and it is unacceptable to us which is why we are investing £2 billion in our network to 2025.

"We have pledged this week, in response to the Environment Bill amendment that we are ready to plan and deliver an 80% reduction in storm releases by 2030. A task force to prioritise this work has been set up this week.

"Separating surface water from the sewer network is the most cost effective and environmentally beneficial way to address this issue. We want to work with all our partners to deliver solutions.

"Margate Wastewater Pumping Station is now staffed 24 hours during times of forecasted rainfall."

The water company also said it was being open with residents and protesters who have raised concerns over recent weeks.

They added: "We would be happy to meet with those protesting today and discuss in detail our plans, investment and delivery.

"We met with Thanet District Council earlier this week as part of our ongoing work to address the concerns in the area.

"We are also spending £400k on a groundbreaking network survey in the area to understand all the pathways for surface water into the sewer network in the area."

A lightning strike in June caused a power failure at the company’s Foreness pumping station, causing raw sewage to be dumped into the sea.

It resulted in the closure of 11 beaches across the Thanet coast, with the district council receiving £100,000 from Southern Water in compensation.

In 2016, the water company was fined a massive £2 million after untreated sewage polluted the sea and beach at Margate following an incident four years prior.

In July this year, it was handed a record £90 million fine for dumping up to 21 billion litres of waste into the sea between 2010 and 2015.

Read more: All the latest news from Thanet