Sewage has been pumped into a South Downs river non-stop for nearly two months – with Park bosses admitting to a Petersfield audience that its clean up is a “priority”.

Concerns about the state of the Rother were raised at the recent Annual Meeting of the Town with one resident saying “you can smell it before you get there”.

Her comments followed a presentation from two South Downs National Park bosses which touched upon a £350,000 bid to improve the Rotherlands Local Nature Reserve on the eastern edge of Petersfield.

Native tree and shrub planting, pathway enhancements and a boardwalk restoration are planned at the 7.6 hectare site, but there’s a feeling the changes will be worthless if water quality doesn’t improve.

“Do you have any influence on Southern Water? Because I would just like to see clean rivers and water,” said the resident to Park CEO Sion McGeever and head of planning, Tim Slaney, during the Festival Hall meeting.

A quick glance at www.sewagemap.co.uk also shows the sewage treatment works in South Harting has been discharging into a tributary of the Rother for 1,065 hours and counting as of 10am on Tuesday.

The discharge began on February 1 while a release that continued for several days also recently took place at the Buriton station.

While Southern Water has not replied to our requests for a comment, the company has invested £8.5million into improving the South Harting works to ensure “water leaving the site is even cleaner that it was”.

“This will benefit the River Rother well into the future,” states their announcement, with the opposite being said by Mr McGeever at the recent meeting in Petersfield.

He said: “We don’t think it’s good enough at the moment and we need to bring focus and attention to it.

“It’s a challenge but it will require everyone to work together because there are so many indicators pointing in the wrong direction at the moment.”