Water bosses have admitted a river could silt up by ten centimetres a month when a controversial scheme gets under way.

The Environment Agency has given Essex and Suffolk Water the go-ahead to discharge treated sewage effluent into the River Chelmer.

The same volume of water would then be removed from the river further downstream.

But angry residents are up in arms at the plans and quizzed Environment Agency chiefs at a public meeting in Maldon Town Hall on Tuesday evening.

Seventy people - including fishermen, environmentalists, shipwrights and sailors - packed into the hall to hear why the project has been given the green light.

Issues such as water quality and the effects on wildlife were raised, but agency representatives insisted the quality of drinking water would not suffer and weekly tests would be carried out.

English Nature is also satisfied the scheme would not have a detrimental effect on wildlife.

But a spokesperson for Essex and Suffolk Water admitted there would be added siltation in the river - and that they haven't yet found a way of clearing it.

The company spokesman said: "We have never been in any doubt that, should we run this scheme, it will lead to increased siltation of up to ten centimetres a month in the summer.

"We will be undertaking some sort of dredging. We just need to make sure that we avoid the channel narrowing. We will pay to maintain the profile of the river as it is now.

"If the worst comes to the worst then we will have to abandon the scheme."

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