Updated and refreshed on 10 January 2026.
Simon Thackray submission to the Planning Inspector Mr David M H Rose and interested parties.
Appeal Reference: APP/U2750/W/25/3371863
Planning Application ZE24/01683/MOUT re Land off Rainbow Lane, Malton, North Yorkshire for 200 houses.
Copy of the submission sent to Beth Evans of Freeths on 9 January 2026
Video showing Yorkshire Water discharging sewage into the River Derwent SSSI, Norton, Malton, on 20 November 2025 via the Environment Agency owned and operated Mill Beck pumping station.
Yorkshire Water discharging combined sewage on Thursday 20 November at 16.13 from the Welham Road North CSO in Norton on Derwent, North Yorkshire (aka Malton Norton CSO) via the Environment Agency owned and operated Mill Beck pumping station located in Norton Road. Yorkshire Water is pumping combined sewage directly into the River Derwent SSSI due to the lack of capacity in its Malton (Norton) sewerage system. Yorkshire Water has recently installed a sewage storage facility at Bark Knotts (a paddock behind Lidl), Norton. Watch the video below to see how this is being done deliberately but out of sight and out of mind.
Yorkshire Water Combined Sewer Storm Overflow Map
The screenshot above is an example of the sewage spills you can see happening, or have recently happened, in near real-time. Simply go to the map and search for your village or town or for a particular Combined Sewer Overflow. The map dosen’t work quite as well as it could however. As you can see from the start time of the discharge on the map (16:23), this is a later discharge event to the 16:19 time recorded on my video above. This is because the latest discharge event overwrites the previously displayed discharge data. It is possible to see historical discharge start and stop times, but the Yorkshire Water Start / Stop data takes a while to be updated. Something the technical department at Yorkshire Water could sort out perhaps?
Yorkshire Water pumping raw sewage into the River Derwent, Norton on Derwent, 13 December 2024. In cooperation and collaboration with North Yorkshire Council and the Environment Agency. Video shows Yorkshire Water pumping raw sewage from the Church Street, Norton combined sewer, via specially installed permanent pipework, directly into the River Derwent SSSI, SAC (Site of Special Scientific Interest and designated European Special Area of Conservation). This is not an emergency response to flooding, this is deliberate, planned-for and engineered, pollution of the watercourse as a means of flood alleviation.
The Yorkshire Water Sewage Treatment Works? Written and composed by Stanley Bad, performed by Lynda Beast. Lynda performs the Stanley Bad classics: The Yorkshire Water Sewage Treatment Works? and The Sewer Dweller’s Song To His Mistress. Performed at the gates of the Yorkshire Water Sewage Treatment Works, York Road Industrial Estate, Malton. Lynda Beast and the Fortune Teller’s Caravan, June 2017. The Shed’s 25th Anniversary Tour. Later that day, a Blue Plaque was unveiled in Brawby in honour of The Shed. Courtesy of the BBC and the British Plaque Trust.
Ryedale Flood Defence Machine – 3D Working Model. Designed and built in a shed in Brawby and deployed regularly in Malton since 2015 to calm public fears caused by the delayed implementation of the recommendations contained in the Arup report. The RFDM’s latest operation was on County Bridge, Malton, during the most recent chaos caused by the multi-Agency Malton and Norton Pumping Plan in December 2023 and January 2024.
2025 dates to be announced shortly!
Ryedale Sausage Fishing Championships – sponsored by Yorkshire Water and Potty Plc
Does what it says on the tin. Stocks of the Derwent Sausage Minnow are thriving thanks to the raw sewage being pumped into the river by Yorkshire Water. Join the craze that’s sweeping the nation! Sausage fishing is for everyone, not just for Christmas! Music: “I Took A Walk” by Billy Jenkins. Used by kind permission.
Yorkshire Water – Broken Promises. My first video edit experiment in 2013 born of exasperation. Yorkshire Water repeatedly promised to leave a portable pump in Brawby to protect the village from sewer flooding… and then took it away. Suffice to say, they drove me nuts. Music by kind permission of Matthew Bourne.
The Bare Bottomed Whirligig Sausage Bazooka. Film of the Scagglethorpe International Arts Biennale Committee, 28.03.2017 on a rare outing to Hull, staging a performance to illustrate Zeno’s Paradox (which inadvertently coincided with the Arts Council England (ACE) Annual Lecture being given by former Tate boss Sir Nicolas Serota at Hull Truck Theatre). Just as we were packing up shop, who should come wandering down the footpath? Yes, Sir Nic and his assistant, who very genially stopped for a chat and posed to have their photos taken. Nic’s assistant proudly holding onto the Sausage Bazooka! Google AI gives the wrong explanation, but they would. The bazooka is fairly self-explanatory.
Scott, from Yorkshire Water, litter-picking condoms and sanitary towels discharged from Yorkshire Water’s Waste Water Treatment Works in Brawby, North Yorkshire. See photos of the detritus and gunge that were pulled from the polluted ditch on Friday 8 February 2013.
Midge Over Troubled Water: is a boring video of a midge flying over water standing in the Brawby sewer drainage ditch. I have updated the video description which now identifies a fatal flaw in the Brawby sewerage system, not identified by us in 2013. This fault leads to pollution by Yorkshire Water, pure and simple, and a criminal offence. I urge you to read this new description.
Brawby Sewer CCTV Inspection – The Movie! (trailer…): CCTV inspection (by Yorkshire Water) of a section of the Brawby sewer (since replaced) in 2013. Soundtrack, ‘Terraced Fast Food’ is from the Billy Jenkins CD ‘I Am A Man From Lewisham’, featuring internationally renowned tuba player Oren Marshall. Oren has played with every major orchestra in London, as well as with the Bolshoi Theatre Soloists, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Ballet. As a member of London Brass (whom he joined in 1987) he has made numerous recordings, toured worldwide several times, played six Proms concerts and performed for the Queen, Prince Charles, the German Chancellor and the Pope.
Brawby Sewer CCTV Inspection – The Movie! (trailer 2). Soundtrack: ‘Folk House’ by Reflektor (Jan Kopinski) from the live film and music project ‘Mirrors’, commissioned by Opera North with funding from Jazz Services. Special and big thank you to Jan for permission to use this beautiful music.
These videos and documents show that almost no work of any practical significance has been carried out by Yorkshire Water, North Yorkshire Council, and the Environment Agency, to prevent sewer flooding and pollution in our towns (and in Brawby) since 2012. The situation has changed in Brawby. Yorkshire Water has just completed laying a new surface water sewer to prevent the overloading of the combined sewerage system. Some items are still to be completed but this should resolve the historical pollution issues.
The Malton, Norton and Old Malton Flood Study 2015 (aka the Arup report), is the North Yorkshire equivalent of the Lindisfarne Gospels. It is both illuminating and a revelation. It explains (for those who want to know) the way to remove sewage pollution from our towns, streets, gardens, and homes, and stop the emotional trauma, disruption and travel chaos caused by the operation of the Malton and Norton and Old Malton Pumping Plan. This plan is blocking progress and allowing and enabling Yorkshire Water to continue its ‘pollution business as usual’ and evade its duty to upgrade its sewers, sewage pumping stations, and Malton Waste Water Treatment Works. Once again, I sense change is coming. The worm has turned.
Malton and Norton and Old Malton Flood Study by Arup 2015
“Whilst local surface water flooding may not affect as many properties as would flood from the River Derwent, sewer flooding from the overloaded combined sewer network makes it particularly unpleasant for the residents and businesses affected;”
It is “particularly unpleasant for the residents“ because it is sewage!
To see the EDM records of Yorkshire Water sewage spills for Malton, Norton and Old Malton, North Yorkshire visitmaltonsewer.co.uk