A Leicestershire woman fears residents will be “swimming in sewage before long” after suffering her 11th sewage flood in just 12 months. Julie Howitt’s back garden in Littlethorpe’s Cosby Road resembled a lake more than a garden after the latest incident.
Footage of the floods taken on Monday (January 6) show how high the sewage and water levels had risen at Ms Hewitt’s house. It is the 11th flood in a year for Julie who believes public combined sewers not being able to cope as the source of the problem.
The 58-year-old said: “I always know when it is about to happen as the downstairs loo starts to gurgle. If I had sealed drains outside, the sewage would backflow up my loo and flood my home, so I am grateful for that at least.”
READ MORE:‘We’ve lost everything’ say owners of flooded Leicestershire pub
Sewage covering the Littlethorpe resident’s back garden
(Image: Julie Howitt)
Miss Howitt said after the sewage flood subsided, her patio, front drive, side paths and lawn were grey with sewage and covered in toilet tissue. Severn Trent contacted Miss Howitt on Wednesday (January 8), to arrange a clear up, but she had to take matters into her own hand as she didn’t know how long that would take to actually happen.
She claimed she has “been battling with Severn Trent for a year now” regarding the “totally inadequate combined sewage and rainwater pipes” that run from Cosby to Littlethorpe along the Cosby Road. She is also demanding action on the “equally useless pumping station” in Cosby Road.
Miss Howitt said: “Since the new houses on Cosby Road and Holt Way were built, myself and neighbours have suffered from sewage backflow flooding. I’ve yet to have it confirmed [by Severn Trent] how many hydraulic pumps are at the station, but it is either one or two. I have been advised by an independent engineer that there should be four to function adequately, yet this issue has still not been addressed.
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“The current system would have been designed to support Littlethorpe prior to the new builds and simply cannot cope now, so the fact there is planning even being considered for another 12 houses on Cosby Road is beyond a joke. Sadly those 12 will likely slip through the net as we concentrate on opposing the other mind bogglingly crazy applications for 201 off Oak Road and Sycamore Way […] I fear we may all be swimming in sewage before long.”
LeicestershireLive asked Severn Trent why the problem keeps occurring, how many hydraulic pumps were at the station, and how many should there be. We also asked whether there were plans to increase the size of the pipes and add extra holding tanks in light of additional housing planning proposals put forward to Blaby District Council (BDC).
Sewage covering the Littlethorpe resident’s back garden
(Image: Julie Howitt)
Alex Cooney, Leicestershire waste team manager at Severn Trent said: “We know just how distressing any form of flooding can be and we’d like to apologise to those customers who have been affected. We are reviewing the hydraulic capacity of the network in the area and what other measures can be taken to reduce the risk of this occurring again. We will then be contacting impacted customers to update them on our planned work.
“The pumping station at Cosby Road has recently been replaced with a gravity-fed system following the completion of the new houses on Holt Way and a team will inspect the on-site holding tanks to ensure they are working as designed.”
LeicestershireLive also asked BDC if there were any plans in place to upgrade the pipes/drainage systems should further housing applications in the area get approved. A spokesperson said: “Sewers and drainage are not within our remit so it would be inappropriate to comment on areas outside of our responsibility”.
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