Raw sewage is now being pumped into Peel bay only on a receding tide, while work continues to progress on the area’s sewage treatment scheme.

It comes after an announcement that Glenfaba House, outside the town, is still being considered as a potential option for catchment (where sewage is collected from various sources) – for what is now confirmed to be a regional sewage treatment solution.

Manx Utilities said it is seeking to gain all of the approvals required so that the building phase can start, for which the preferred site would be one within Peel.

Peel Commissioners chair Hazel Hannan said that as sewage was being pumped into the bay all the time, the local authority requested the change at a recent meeting with MU, in order to improve water quality.

No sites have yet been announced for the final phase of MU’s Regional Sewage Treatment Strategy (RSTS2).

MU previously suffered the embarrassing rejection of two planning applications for sewage works Peel and Laxey.

2024 has been discussed as a potential completion date for the facility.

While the chair of MU confirmed that project is on track, others aren’t so optimistic, especially since it was revealed Glenfaba House may be a last resort.

Community presentations of final solutions are planned and dates and locations will be publicised, once agreed.

Asked how realistic she thought 2024 was, Mrs Hannan said: ‘I’m not confident at all.

‘We’ve only got to look at the prom in Douglas, the Steam Packet terminal in Liverpool, these sort of things.

‘And we’ve got development now in Westlands [the government’s £5.2m sheltered housing scheme in Peel], and it’s late as well, I think each of the units there have been late.

‘Different things happen, and they find something that’s not as they expected’.