In April, we revealed that last year there were 725 separate overflow incidents across the town.

According to Environment Agency data, together they lasted for a duration of 3,138 hours.

Locations where incidents occurred included Hainworth, Ingrow, Riddlesden, Sandbeds and Utley.

Plus, further discharges took place in the Worth Valley and at Steeton.

Now Yorkshire Water has issued an apology, and says it is investing £180 million in reducing discharges from storm overflows over the next two years.

Improvement work will be carried out on overflows which discharge into all major rivers throughout the region, including the River Aire.

The company says the new investment, partly funded by shareholders, is in addition to £147 million being spent as part of the utility’s current five-year business plan and work being planned between 2025 and 2030.

Yorkshire Water chief executive officer, Nicola Shaw, has written an open letter to customers accepting that the company did not act quickly enough over the issue and apologising to customers.

She adds: “Despite the number and duration of discharges from storm overflows in Yorkshire decreasing in 2022, we understand they happen more than our customers would like and we are determined to tackle this issue and do our bit for river health.

“Tackling overflows, which were designed into the system as a relief valve, is a priority for us but it is also a significant task. In Yorkshire, we have over 2,200 overflows and we know re-plumbing the whole of the region is not a quick fix as it would be both significantly disruptive and costly to customers. However, further investment from our shareholders is helping us tackle this issue.

“We have now launched a project that will see £180m spent on storm overflow improvements in the next two years. This will target the overflows we know are operating more frequently and for longer. Our teams are already on the ground working on the first of these overflows and the investment will help to reduce discharges by at least 20 per cent, but in most cases, we’ll be going way beyond that and reducing them significantly.”

Measures being carried out also include increasing storage capacity and making small changes to operations at wastewater treatment works, and moves to prevent surface water entering the sewer system.