Thames Water have now carried out further investigations into the sewage odour nuisance to the back of Northdowns. They have confirmed that:
“We attended and cut the brambles on 5 January 2017, and uncovered 3 manhole covers. We lifted the covers and camera surveyed the drains, we found there was a mass of roots in the line causing a blockage, stopping wastewater from flowing freely down the drains. This is what was causing the bad smell.
We re-attended on 9 January 2017 and removed all the roots from the line. Once we had done this we camera surveyed the line again and have identified a hole in this section of the drain. We are planning to reline the sewer to repair the defect. We’re in contact with the customer who needs to grant us access and they’re aware of this work.”
We will be continuing to chase Thames Water to ensure that the relining work is carried out.
A resident of Northdowns has confirmed to us that:
“I first reported the ‘pong’ to Thames water on 4th August, and the engineer that came on the 5th said that they needed to clear the brambles. (Others have repeated this since). So it was a full 5 months before they actually did it.
There had, in the mean time, been dozens of phone calls, many visits, with cameras and high pressure hoses (probably involving, hundreds of man hours) as they investigated the main line of the sewer.
When the task of clearing the brambles was eventually undertaken, they found that it was the branch sewer, that was clearly shown on their maps, that joined at the point were the ‘pong’ was, was the source. (Surprise-surprise).
There have been many unfulfilled promises of action and explanation of the reason for the long time involved.
How can Thames Water be expected to cope with a thousand new houses, when a simple job like this is beyond their capabilities.”
Email reproduced with kind permission.
