‘WELCOME to the historic Borough of Poo’. 

Some residents may have spotted some signs around the town with the two final letters of Poole coloured to write the word ‘poo’. 

The welcome to Poole signs in Hamworthy, Branksome and on the Wessex Way have all been vandalised along with a sign at Sainsbury’s, Poole Quay Hotel and a ‘Welcome to Poole Harbour’ sign. 

Poole residents Joe Foale-Groves and Gagandeep Jhuti are the people behind this, both activists targeting the signs to bring awareness to sewage discharges. 

(Image: PR) Two Poole residents have claimed to tamper the signs (Image: Daily Echo)

More than 20 signs across the town have been changed as part of the campaign along with a new tourism website reading “Welcome to Poo Harbour” and “Last year there were over 477,000 discharges of untreated sewage into English waters. Some lasting hours.” 

Joe has called on the Labour government to address what he dubs the “sewage crisis”, adding: “It would be the perfect way to show how much the new government cares about the environment and cleaning up the mess we’ve had to live in for years now. 

“Our ultimate goal is for targets to end sewage discharges into bathing waters and rivers to be brought forward much sooner than 2050.  

“The problem has gone on for far too long and changes need to be made for our health, wildlife and climate. 

“Water companies can’t keep giving their bosses huge salaries without addressing all the infrastructure that needs updating. 

(Image: PR)

“It’s obviously a big problem here that we all care about. No one wants to be paying more and more money to these water companies when so many days of the year, they’re polluting our sea. 

“If other water companies can be fined, why is Wessex water still getting away with it?” 

A BCP Council spokesman said: “Our team are aware of this vandalism and will be attending to clean the signage.”

Data from the Environment Agency shows sewage from storm overflows was flowing into water bodies in Dorset for 78,522 hours in 2023, during 7,334 spills. 

This was up from 29,675 hours recorded the year before, when there were 3,941 spills in the area. 

Last week, three of the country’s biggest water companies were told they could be forced to pay £168 million in fines over sewage spills, including a £104 million penalty for Thames Water. 

Regulator Ofwat proposed the fine for Thames, plus sanctions of £47 million for Yorkshire Water and £17 million for Northumbrian Water, in the first results of a landmark probe into all 11 of England and Wales’ water firms. 

Wessex Water was not included on this list.