Severn Trent has revealed how it has reduced spills at a Gloucestershire river by 96% in just one year, as it announced plans for 600 new storm overflow solutions across the region.

The overflow at Charlton Kings in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, had spilt into The River Chelt some 25 times in 2023, up from 19 times in 2022.

But after major investment at the site, including boosting storage capacity, laying bigger pipes and installing new monitors, the spills plummeted to just one in 2024 - a fall of some 96%.

The news comes after Severn Trent completed 1,500 engineering projects at its storm overflows ahead of schedule and has now unveiled plans to fast-track the delivery of another 600 river improvement projects. 

This will bring the number of upgrades, including storm water tanks to hold rainwater and new wetlands to naturally treat wastewater, to an industry leading 2,100 projects by autumn 2025. 

This work forms part of a £1 billion investment across the region and Severn Trent plans to invest around £2 billion in the coming five years to reduce the use of storm overflows across the region and on projects to help improve river health.

With another record year of rain and a hike in extreme weather events, the work is estimated to have resulted in around 24,000 spills from storm overflows being prevented across the region in 2024.

Matt Leedham - pictured above - is Waste Optimisation Performance Manager at Severn Trent and led the two-year Charlton Kings project. He said: “It’s been an amazing success, thanks to the efforts of all our teams.

“We wanted to reduce our impact on the River Chelt and we’ve done that in 2024 and believe that will continue going forward. We now hope to replicate this kind of success at other sites to show to the public we are really making progress in cutting spills.”

James Jesic, Capital Delivery and Commercial Director at Severn Trent, added: “The Chalton Kings project on the River Chelt is a great example of success in reducing storm overflows. This project, and others similar will serve as a blueprint for the improvements we’re making across our region as we continue to move at pace to reduce spills. As all of the improvements get up and running, we’re looking forward to seeing the huge benefits of this work right across the region in the year ahead.”

Dad-of-two Matt said the company had carried out flow investigations at Charlton Kings before designing the new solution project.

“We installed the latest flow monitors to give us the most accurate data to understand performance and then our designs team came up with the best way to cut spills,” he said.

“This included boosting storm flow storage by installing 50m of much bigger pipes, which helps better manage flow during really heavy rainfall. New and improved sensors were also installed to give us the most accurate data.”

“We saw a lot of rain in 2024, yet had just one spill at the site which shows what we have done is working here.”

Matt, from Derbyshire, is also involved in storm overflow improvement projects across the region. He said: “We are going further and faster to carry out improvements to cut spills and improve river health. The projects range in size depending on the site, but we believe all will have a positive impact.”

Away from work, qualified pilot Matt is an RAF Cadet Leader. He said: “I love working with young people to help them develop essential life skills and grow as individuals.  

“My dad was a pilot and I’ve loved flying and aviation from a young age.  Flying is one of my biggest passions outside of the job. At work I love solving issues to ensure everything functions as intended, benefitting both our customers and the environment.”