Thames Water told to 'take action' over sewage

A water company has been ordered to "investigate and take necessary action" after complaints about sewage flowing into gardens in a Surrey village.

Residents in Leigh say they have endured years of raw sewage bubbling up through manhole covers following heavy downpours because the old pumping station near Brook Lane is easily overwhelmed.

Thames Water has been told by the Environment Agency that the situation was "not acceptable", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Thames Water has apologised to its customers and said groundwater had overloaded its sewer system.

Brian Boustred, who has lived in the village for nearly half a century, said: “Normal everyday life is made awful."

He said: "Every time it rains heavily it floods, and it just comes as a grey sort of sludge, you’ve just got to put up with it because they don’t do anything.

“All through the summer it smells."

Leigh parish councillor Mike Everitt told Dorking and Horley MP Chris Coghlan: “Every time we’ve had meetings with Thames Water, they have come out, they have given us lip service.

“They’ve told us that the pumping station needs upgrading to handle the amount of water coming through but there is no money so there is nothing they can really do - and then walked off and left us to it.”

Mr Coghlan said: “I’m very frustrated that this has been ignored for years by Thames Water, it’s really impacting the quality of life of my constituents.”

Sally Harvey, Environment Agency area manager for Surrey, called the situation “not acceptable” in a letter to Mr Coghlan.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We have instructed Thames Water to investigate and take necessary action."

A spokesperson for Thames Water said: "We recognise how difficult this can be for our customers.

"Due to the heavy rainfall, high levels of groundwater have infiltrated into our local sewer system causing it to overload and in some occasions, release diluted wastewater from nearby manholes.

"We have a plan to survey the sewers which is expected to begin next month, when water levels in the sewers have receded, after which we will be able to identify the next steps."

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