The Isle of Wight MP has said Southern Water promises about how it plans to tackle sewage discharges, have filled him with enough confidence that he would swim off the Island's coast, himself.

Bob Seely was among those who attended a stakeholder engagement meeting in Newport on Friday (10).

He met with bosses from the utility firm to discuss how it intends to meet targets set by government to reduce storm overflows.

Speaking to the County Press, Mr Seely said: "We are now one of the very small number of national priority clean-up areas.

"What I want from them is to make sure they are keeping people informed because they're actually doing a lot of good work.

"I think there is going to be a sea change, if you'll pardon the pun, in the next five years when it comes to storm overflows and when it comes to the quality of rivers and beaches and the beneficial impact it will have on wildlife and humans as well."

How storm overflows are tackled was top of the agenda at the event.

It comes after a high number of releases off the Island in recent months.

Katy Taylor, chief customer officer for the utility firm, told the County Press "unacceptable" infrastructure was one of the reasons.

Mr Seely said, while he acknowledges changes won't happen overnight, the Island is first on the list.

He said he will hold Southern Water to account over its promises.

"If they drop the ball on anything I will be all over them", Mr Seely said.

"The evidence of this is when they were getting bad publicity for their fine, I said to them you can either get your reputation trashed or you can work to renew it.

"It's because we started talking to them they realised they had to change. It's at that point I said how about making the Isle of Wight a test case."

Asked whether promises have filled him with enough confidence to take a dip himself, Mr Seely, who is a keen swimmer, said: "Yeah because my favourite place to go for a sea swim is Freshwater because it's easier to get out of, especially in the winter. 

"Freshwater has always been pretty clean".

He pointed towards the free water butt initiative, which has been launched on the Island.

It has recently been rolled out in Gurnard, after a successful trial in Havenstreet.

There are also plans to introduce it in Wootton and Fishbourne, Mr Seely said.

Sandown has also been selected as one of six locations for Southern Water's Pathfinder project.