Arbour Lane Pumping Station

Storm overflow run by United Utilities, discharging into Mill Brook.

Storm discharge at pumping station Wigan constituency
Right now
Discharging now
Since on · 2 h 24 min so far.
Times are UK time. Company feed updated 2 min ago

"Not discharging" means the company's monitor reports no discharge right now — not that the water is clean. The feed publishes status only; no discharge volume is measured.

2026 so far
13spills
16 h discharging on 14 days · live feed, before 28 Feb via Top of the Poops, not yet official
2025 official
14spills
46 h · −7% on 2024
Rank in United Utilities
#1,148
of 2,242 overflows by 2025 spills (1 = most)
Monitor in 2025
99.9% working
Long-term average 22.2 spills a year

Year by year

The Environment Agency's official annual returns, counted the EA's way (12/24-hour spills). 2026 is our own running count, the same way, from the live feed: our own log of it begins on 28 February, and the discharges before that are Top of the Poops' record of the same feed. The official figure is published next spring.

2021
18 spills · 40 hmonitor 100%
2022
17 spills · 26 hmonitor 99.7%
2023
29 spills · 70 hmonitor 100%
2024
15 spills · 58 hmonitor 99.9%
2025
14 spills · 46 hmonitor 99.9%
2026so far
13 spills · 16 h

A spill is the EA's 12/24-hour count: the first 12 hours of a discharge count as one, each further 24 hours with discharge as one more. "Monitor" is the share of that year the monitor was working, so a 0 beside a working monitor is a real zero; "no data" means the monitor produced no usable data that year — not zero. Years before 2024 are matched to this site by name and location, because the EA's site IDs changed that year; a monitor figure beside one of them means the outlet's permit confirms the match.

What the 2025 return says

From United Utilities's annual return to the Environment Agency for this overflow.

High-spill review
High spill threshold not met
Long-term review
Not asset maintenance - Hydraulic capacity
Investigation
Env Act (SODRP) investigation ongoing
Improvement work
No improvement action in reporting period
Monitored since
2019
Water body
Douglas - Lower

"High spill threshold not met" means this overflow did not spill often enough to trigger the EA's formal high-spill review for that year. It is not a statement that the spills were harmless.

Discharges we have recorded

80 discharge periods since 10 Jan 2023, 1 still open. 67 of them come from United Utilities's own event-duration-monitoring records (published on Stream, Jan 2023 – Dec 2025); the live feed adds anything after that. The official annual count is the figure to quote.

Show 30 earlier (of 80)
StartedEndedDischarge time
6 min
16 min
30 min
1 h 18 min
8 min
46 min
4 h 36 min
38 min
26 min
18 min
26 min
1 h 0 min
2 h 18 min
10 h 30 min
3 h 30 min
2 h 22 min
14 min
32 min
2 h 15 min
30 min
4 h 15 min
14 h 15 min
2 h 45 min
2 h 15 min
2 h 15 min
30 min
5 h 15 min
2 h 45 min
1 h 0 min
9 h 15 min

The year figures above use the EA's 12/24-hour counting method, so they are comparable with the official figures; the monitor log's 85 raw blocks were merged into 80 continuous discharge periods (gaps under 15 min joined).

What the feed showed

FloodRadar's own record of every change of state United Utilities's live feed has shown for this overflow, kept since : 2 states. The feed publishes its status now and its latest discharge, nothing older; the discharges above are read from this. It is here so the figures can be checked.

Show the last 2 states
SeenStatusSinceLatest discharge
Discharging → no end yet
Not discharging →

Rain nearby last 30 days

Nearest live rain gauge: Rainfall gauge nr Wigan, 3.2 km away. Brown shading = when this overflow was discharging; ▼ = a discharge start.

Overflow shading is a timing match, not proof of cause — heavy rain and spills share a trigger. Times come from the water company’s event-duration monitor (site status only; no discharge volume is published).

Where it is

Nearest river gauge
Appley Bridge (River Douglas) · 2.7 km
Nearest rain gauge
Council area
Wigan District (B)
United Utilities's own name for it
Arbour Lane Pumping Station (50033) (Wig0029 )
Site reference
UUP00127 · permit 017091563
Coordinates
53.58222, -2.68074

Tell me when this overflow discharges

One message when the company's monitor reports a new discharge here. At most one every 6 hours.

Setting this alert needs JavaScript. The alerts you already have are on your alerts page.

The alert repeats the monitor's status: whether the overflow is discharging, not how much or why. It can only tell you about a discharge that starts after you turn it on.

Concerned about this overflow?

Report pollution you can see or smell to the regulator straight away; the company handles complaints about the overflow itself.

Write to the MP

The Environment Agency's return places this overflow in the Wigan constituency. An MP can ask the company and the regulator questions on a constituent's behalf. These words carry the official figures; change them as you like.

Find the MP for Wigan

The link opens Parliament's own "Find your MP", which gives the MP's name and how to write to them. FloodRadar sends nothing and keeps nothing you write. Check the constituency against your own address: an MP acts only for people who live in it.

Live status: © United Utilities storm overflow activity data, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Annual spill figures: Environment Agency Event Duration Monitoring return, © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right, Open Government Licence (OGL) v3.0. Storm-overflow spill events: © the respective water company, published on Stream (data.streamwaterdata.co.uk) under CC BY 4.0. Discharges marked "via Top of the Poops", and this year's figures before 28 February, come from Top of the Poops' record of the same company feed, used under CC BY-SA 4.0: the feed's own start and end times as its pages print them, not their derived hours. Times are shown in UK local time. FloodRadar republishes the monitor's status and the EA's figures; it does not measure discharges itself. Constituency and council area from the EA's return: contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.