Colwell residents are ‘fed- up’ with Southern Water

Fed-up Colwell residents have slammed Southern Water again after the latest sewage spill, on Colwell Common, last Thursday (February 22), following more heavy rain.

Jeff Lister, who supplied these photos said: “Every time there is heavy rainfall the drain lid lifts and toilet paper and excrement are spread onto the Common.

“This has been reported on numerous occasions to Southern Water and Enviromental Health. All Southern Water do is turn up and make an attempt to clean up the area. Despite Southern Water spending many hours cleaning up, there is still no plan to fix the problem.

“I have seen children and dogs paddling in the foul pollution unaware of what they are standing in. The community chat benches are about 10 metres away from the drain. The pollution then flows into a nearby stream. How many times does it have to be reported to Southern Water before they do something about it? My partner and I have spent many hours on the phone to Southern Water trying to report it. Every time that we get through to Southern Water on the phone they behave as if it has never been reported before!”

“This problem has also been reported to our MP, Bob Seely, and the local councillors, but still no action has been taken. How long can Southern Water go on polluting our countryside, rivers and our seas with impunity?”

A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “We’re sorry for the spilling issues at Colwell Common. We are planning to carry out work to fix this, but this will require further investigation including using CCTV and other investigations to get a better understanding of how the sewer network is behaving during heavy rainfall.

“After this, we can create a plan on how to mitigate and hopefully prevent spills in this area.”

On Wednesday evening Adam Wilde, Southern Water liaison officer for complaints, attended a public meeting at Freshwater Memorial Hall to address residents’ concerns.

He confirmed that engineers had now completed a tree root scan on the area and found a build-up of silt and tree roots blocking the drain. This would be addressed within a week, and it is hoped the work will give the water extra capacity to flow under the Common and reduce flooding.