United Utilities has been fined nearly £1m after pleading guilty to five environmental permit offences over a raw sewage discharge along the Fylde coast in June 2023, which polluted popular holiday spots including Blackpool. Preston magistrates' court ordered the company to pay £964,225 in fines and costs, in a case the Environment Agency classed at its most serious level, after untreated sewage was released from three pumping stations for more than 35 hours over several days, affecting Blackpool, Lytham St Annes, Fleetwood and Cleveleys.

The incident followed the partial collapse of a final effluent pipe at Fleetwood wastewater treatment works, which reduced capacity and caused sewage to back up before being discharged after rainfall. All eight designated bathing waters on the affected coastline received "no bathing" advice, with a plume reaching seven of them and E coli detected on beaches and at facilities such as Fleetwood baths; three shellfish beds were also temporarily closed. The Environment Agency said Blackpool's summer visitor numbers fell by hundreds of thousands compared with the previous year, and United Utilities has apologised, accepting it fell short of expected standards.