SOUTHEND's beaches have once again re-opened after sewage leaked into the sea.

Anglian Water have been "stood down" from the seafront following the sewage chaos

Chalkwell Lifeguards removed tape, barriers and warning signs from along the foreshore yesterday afternoon, in preparation for the beaches to re-open this morning.

The popular Southend fireworks event was cancelled last month due to the sewage spill.
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An an email to councillors, which the Echo has seen, a spokesman from Anglian water, said: "Please note that as of today, we have met the triggers to stand down the formal and full incident team.

"This means that whilst we will still be on site monitoring flows and overflows, we have now been able to test flow models using real data and have confidence to be able to stand down the immediate incident response.

"Our teams have been on site over the weekend to ensure that everything is running as expected.

"We have had tankers in Southend but have not had to use these.

"We have also had teams cleaning the city and beaches and these teams will remain in place until the Environment Agency and Local Authority are sufficiently happy to reopen the beaches."

A spokesman from the Chalkwell Lifeguards, said: "Beach Welfare Officers from Chalkwell Lifeguards Club sprang into action all day on Tuesday to visit over 90 of Southends Beach Access points to remove the tape and barriers and warning signs all along the foreshore to ensure that all of Southends Beaches would be open again for all the open water swimmers and dog walkers by first thing on Wednesday morning.

"Southends Council's Pier and Foreshore Department had been given the go ahead by the Environment Agency to start re opening the beaches to the public again on Tuesday following closures due to recent pollution concerns along the foreshore.

"It's great to be able to help the local community to get back onto the beaches as quickly as possible and enjoy the lovely autumn sunshine."