First look behind scenes of UK-first sewage plant

A £6m new sewage centre, the first of its kind in the UK, "supercharges" the process of treating waste, Severn Trent Water has said.

Monkmoor Sewage Treatment, outside Shrewsbury, treats and cleans waste water that can be returned to the system with a quality almost the same as that in a river.

Seven Trent said the number of sewage spills into its waterways fell by 41% in 2025, mainly down to a wider £2bn investment that includes the centre, as well as dry weather.

Campaign group Up Sewage Creek said the firm had not been "very transparent" about its work at the centre, prompting members to ask a lot of questions to try to ensure its operation is effective and offers value for money.

River rangers manager Gareth Mead explained the centre enables the team to "force more sewage through the works".

"It gives us a lot more capacity which is really great for growth in the area - Shrewsbury, like a lot of towns is growing," he explained.

"It also means we can treat more sewage when we get rainfall, and that will really help spill reduction."

The new technology - called a Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) - targets the ammonia found in sewage.

Sewage is treated this way in all centres, but this new one "supercharges that process", Mead said.

"What this is doing is targeting that oxygen to the bugs that remove the ammonia," he said.

"We get a super low concentration ammonia which we return to the river, so [it's] great for the river, great for the wildlife downstream."

It was trialled at an innovation centre just outside Redditch, but this is the first site it has been rolled out full-scale.

"It's working really well," said Mead.

"We're seeing duckweed in this treatment process, which you really don't see.

"It's showing that it's really effective at treating ammonia, which is the thing we want to get out of the sewage."

Although the water firm says there has been reduction of sewage spills and billions in investment, campaigners like Up Sewage Creek (USC) are yet to feel convinced about the clean-up.

"I've not seen not too much actually happen on the ground yet, and Severn Trent Water haven't been very transparent about what they're doing, how much it's going to cost," said Sarah Kirby, of USC.

"We have been asking a lot of questions over quite a long time, so that we can ensure that what they're doing is effective and cost effective," she said.

"There's been a massive lack of transparency, which hopefully is beginning to change."

Kirby said she believed agencies needed to work together in communities on a "catchment-based approach."

Mead accepted the firm could do more, and was continuing to invest.

"There's still more we can do - we're not going to stop there, we're going to keep on going with this," he added.

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