Wadebridge Road WWTW draft permit - Consultation Open

We have opened our consultation on the draft permit and draft decision document for the proposed upgrade to Wadebridge Road wastewater treatment works in St Mabyn.


Our role in determining the permit

We are responsible for granting or refusing environmental permits and regulating sites that may impact on the environment through water abstraction, emissions or waste materials. We will not issue a permit if we find evidence that demonstrates the operation will be harmful to human health or the environment.

SWW have applied for a water discharge permit. We assess all permit applications to make sure they meet the requirements of the Environmental Permitting Regulations. When we consider a water discharge permit application, we review the emissions the site will generate to water, how it will be operated and whether it will meet the required standards. If there aren't any technical reasons to refuse the permit application, we are bound by the Regulator's Code to issue the permit. This is a government policy to ensure regulators do not obstruct economic development.

We are likely to issue this permit to SWW, because the alternative means that the current WWTW would become overwhelmed by the increase in sewage flow from the Chapelfields development. This would result in either increased sewage tankering in St Mabyn, or raw sewage spilling to the stream and potentially causing significant environmental harm. We want to make sure that we are enabling SWW to improve its infrastructure and cope with growing demand.


The draft documents

We have written two documents, the Draft Decision Document and the Draft Permit. The draft decision document explains our thought process and how we have taken on board the comments you sent us in the first consultation. The draft permit outlines the conditions the operator would have to meet.

In these documents we frequently say 'we have decided'. This gives the impression that our mind is already made up, but we will not make our final decision until we have considered all your comments. The language enables them to become the final documents with no more re-drafting than is necessary.


What happens next?

We are now asking for your views on our Draft Decision Document and the Draft Permit in our second consultation. We will consider all relevant comments we receive; your comments may affect our decision so we will make our final decision once the consultation has closed.

You can let us know if you would like your comments to be made public when you submit your response on our Citizen Space consultation portal, or in the text of your email or letter.

Your comments will need to provide us with new information and evidence that would cause us to reconsider our decision. The information we are already aware of is outlined and considered in the draft decision document. We make our permitting decisions based on evidence and facts, so any consultation responses you send us must include evidence to support your statements. If no new information comes to light, we will issue the permit to SWW after the close of the consultation.

If we decide to refuse the permit to SWW, it has the right to appeal our decision.


How can you comment on the consultation?

Our second consultation is now open and we invite you to comment on the draft decision document and draft permit. We know that opening a consultation just before Christmas is not ideal, so we have decided to extend the consultation by 2 weeks (our statutory consultation time is 20 working days) to allow you longer to review the draft documents.

Please note that our permitting process does not take into account factors such as off-site vehicle movements, operating hours, visual impact and whether this is an appropriate location for the activity.

You can take part in the consultation by:

We welcome feedback from everyone who has a view on the application, regardless of their age, sex, disability, marriage and civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity status, race, religion or belief or their sexual orientation.

If you need any of the documents in another format, or have issues with accessing the Citizen Space page, please either phone us on 03708 506 506 or email us at DCISEnquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk.

We must receive your comments by 26 January 2026, 11:59pm. Please note that our advert in the Cornish Guardian shows the incorrect closing date of 12 January; we decided to extend the consultation after we submitted the newspaper advert.