Swimmers in sea at Morecambe and Heysham complain of raw sewage floating past

One resident, Philip Sykes, said the water was “dangerously polluted” and was a real concern in light of the Eden Project North proposals.

United Utilities denied they had released any raw sewage into the bay.

But Philip said: "I swim regularly in the bay at Heysham and like many during this heatwave, have been swimming this past week.

"The water quality has been truly disgusting and yesterday [Sunday] myself and many others have reported on social media that they were swimming around floating human excrement.

"This is a truly shocking moment environmentally especially with the promise of Eden around the corner. I saw many children swimming in these dangerously polluted waters."

Other residents took to Facebook to discuss the conditions they found themselves swimming in.

Reports of the sea at Half Moon Bay and Morecambe being "pretty grim" with human excrement floating among the swimmers were made.

One regular swimmer said the water quality was worse than usual.

Amy Hughes Sykes said: "Lots of brown foam and a couple of large poop nuggets floated past me at Sandylands. I thought it would just be at the shoreline but it was the same further in. Never had it that bad before. It's all well and good people saying just don't swim in it but it's a designated bathing beach - it's our right to swim in it, and for it to not be full of sewage. Same goes for all the wildlife that live here!"

Eva Tregidgo said: "Disturbingly poopy at Half Moon Bay. Surrounded by half a dozen floaters at one point. Got out fairly swiftly and rinsed three-year-old’s mouth out with water. Was a real shame as it was a beautiful day."

Paula Wood said: "Never going in again, human poop so flew out n home to scrub myself and boil my towel n swimsuit."

Simon Braithwaite added: "Wonderful to see everyone having fun but the amount of 'floaters' bobbing past the girlfriend and I whilst swimming was disturbing to say the least."

United Utilities said they had "definitely not had any incidents or released any raw sewage".

However, they said that sometimes in the summer there can be a type of marine algae that looks brown and frothy which people have been known to mistake for sewage.

Coun Dave Brookes, cabinet member with responsibility for environmental services, said: “Morecambe Bay is an internationally important site for wading birds, as well as a seaside resort and a centre for a growing number of water-based activities.

“Any reports of pollution in the bay are extremely concerning and although we do not have direct responsibility for water quality, we will continue to make the strongest possible case to both United Utilities and the Environment Agency that the cleanliness of our bathing waters should be a top priority.

“I would encourage anyone who is concerned about a potential water pollution incident to call the Environment Agency's free 24-hour hotline on 0800 807060 so it can be investigated.”

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We received reports of a potential pollution to Morecambe Bay on August 14. Investigations regarded this as low risk to the environment."

“We receive tens of thousands of incident reports every year and respond to all serious incidents. We consider, record and prioritise all incident reports and undertake a robust initial assessment to provide a very early indication of what the categorisation may be.

"This is prior to further assessment or developments of the incident, and therefore both the categorisation and any proposed enforcement response can change to reflect our final assessment.

“We continue to use intelligence from Category 3 and 4 incidents to target our regulatory work to reduce the chance of incidents reoccurring – and where significant environmental harm is found, will not hesitate to pursue those responsible and take appropriate action against them.

“If members of the public spot pollution in their local area its important this is reported to our 24/7 incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60 so we can investigate further.”