Thames Water has said its staff members have been through "challenging times" recently, becoming the target of verbal and physical abuse.

One of the company's directors, Tess Fayers, met with the BBC at its sewage treatment works in Burford, Oxfordshire.

The water provider has come under fierce criticism for sewage spillages.

Ms Fayers said every person in her team "comes to work to do the best possible job they can".

The company currently has debts of about £15.4bn and has asked regulator Ofwat to let it raise bills by up to 44% over the next five years.

It has come under fire recently for water leaks and discharging raw sewage into rivers.

Last week, TV presenter Steve Backshall helped test the quality of the River Thames, which runs near his home and the samples showed potentially harmful levels of bacteria.

Ms Fayers, who is a Berkshire resident and the company's operations director for the Thames Valley and home counties, said discharging sewage into rivers "is absolutely unacceptable to us".

"But it's fair to say that overcoming that is a big challenge for the whole of the industry, and there is not a quick and easy fix," she added.

Ms Fayers said staff had been through "challenging times" when it came to public views on their delivery of services.

She said her colleagues had found the recent renaming of a street in Hampstead Norreys to Sewage Street "quite hurtful".

"People have received quite nasty comments directed at them as individuals on social media," she said.

"Our colleagues have received physical abuse on the streets.

"Over 2,000 people work in my team, and every single one of them comes to work to do the best possible job they can."

She said they were "constantly thinking how we can be better" and doing everything "in an affordable way".

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