WATER company bosses were paid almost £15 million in bonuses last year despite overseeing 825 unlawful sewage discharges a day, leaving every river in England and many coastal waters polluted.

Labour vowed today to “hold water bosses to account for negligence over unlawful discharges” and a campaign group is gathering tens of thousands of signatures on an online petition calling for the bonuses to be scrapped.

The petition has been launched by pressure group 38 Degrees, whose name derives from the angle at which fallen snow turns into an avalanche.

The group said: “Despite sewage being pumped into our rivers and seas 825 times a day last year, water company CEOs received nearly £15 million in bonuses.

“Cleaning up the mess these companies have made could cost the taxpayer hundreds of billions of pounds.

“Why then should ANY water company chief executive receive a SINGLE penny in bonuses while this is happening?”

The group said that water bosses should be forced to act by “hitting them where it hurts — in their bank accounts.”

More than 60,000 people have signed the petition so far.

Meanwhile, campaigners in the Yorkshire coast town of Scarborough mounted a “blue plaque” this week at the offices of Scarborough and Whitby Conservative MP Robert Goodwill to highlight his vote two years ago against proposals to force water companies to reduce the amount of raw sewage they pump into Britain’s rivers and seas.

Scarborough’s beaches and coastal waters have been frequently polluted with raw sewage pumped out by Yorkshire Water.

Ministers have responded to public outrage over the discharges by raising the level of fines that can be imposed on water companies for releasing raw sewage.

However, the government  has also cut the budget of the Environment Agency, which is responsible for monitoring and taking action against sewage dumping, by 50 per cent since 2010.

Labour said that last year coastal communities alone suffered one million hours of unlawful raw sewage discharges.

Shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon has put forward a Water Quality (Sewage Discharge) Bill to Parliament with the aim of ending the discharges by 2030.

Mr McMahon said: “That the Tories have allowed villages, towns and cities across the country to be treated as open sewers shows that they have no respect for places where people live, work and holiday.”

The government claimed that it recognised the importance of protecting the natural environment and was investing accordingly.