AN INQUIRY has been ordered into water quality and sewage discharges in Sunderland.

Despite a £100m investment to improve sewage provision, Environment Minister Michael Meacher has called in Northumbrian Water Company plans and ordered the inquiry after a number of objections by the action group Campaign Against Sewage in the Sea (CASS).

The Sunderland group remains unconvinced about the standard of the sewage system, even though the investment will see treatment up to the highest level come into effect by December.

The action group and Northumbrian Water, yesterday both welcomed the inquiry, by the Department of Environment, Transport and Regions.

Campaign chairman Professor Malcolm Hooper, Sunderland University emeritus professor of medicinal chemistry, said: "The significance is that the whole system, root and branch, will be open to public inspection by the appointed inspection.

"He will see the system is not working, is not properly installed and excessive flows of sewage bypass the treatment works far too often, even when there's no rainfall.

"The system isn't big enough, that's the top and bottom of it."

But Northumbrian Water said the inquiry would endorse the investment and action taken by the company in recent years.