Water quality monitors installed in response to toxic pollution near England's largest lake are ineffective, campaigners have claimed.

Save Windermere campaigners claimed a test they carried out using non-toxic dye showed the equipment was wrongly placed, meaning it could not pick up flow coming from a nearby sewage pipe.

United Utilities had been told by the Information Commissioner Office (ICO) it needed to release environmental information requested by the Save Windermere campaign group.

United Utilities has dropped legal fight to block access to data on the discharge of treated sewage in Lake District. The water company United Utilities has conceded defeat in its legal battle to block public access to data on treated sewage it is discharging into Windermere in the Lake District.

Matt Staniek, the founder of Save Windermere reflects on a year of tireless campaigning.

Windermere has once again been in the news for the wrong reasons, after the Observer, working with Professor Peter Hammond, reported their analysis that United Utilities allegedly discharged illegally into Windermere on more than 500 days from 2018 to 2023.

United Utilities refuses to hand over data on sewage discharges into Windermere. Water company claims information is not in the public interest despite widespread pollution of UK waters.

Campaigners blame United Utilities for blighting famous lake with raw effluent.

The UK is falling further behind on sewage pollution regulation as the EU tightens its rules to clean up Europe’s waterways, say critics.

More than 130 organisations take part in protest demanding government action over country’s sewage crisis

Campaigners have called for changes to how sewage discharge is recorded. Water companies currently only have to record how long sewage is pumped into rivers and not how much is released.

The illegal discharges into the Lake District’s most famous lake and the failure to report them is destroying the UK’s natural treasure.

A water company repeatedly dumped millions of litres of raw sewage illegally into one of England's most famous lakes over a three-year period, the BBC can reveal.

More than 140 million litres of waste were pumped into Windermere between 2021 and 2023 at times when it was not permitted, our analysis shows, and United Utilities failed to report most of it.