Homes and gardens in Newhaven flooded with sewage after heavy downpours

Residents of a Sussex street, repeatedly hit by flooding, are demanding urgent action by Southern Water.

In the past week homes in Lewis Close at Newhaven have once again flooded with wastewater and sewage after heavy rain.

Michael Collier, who lives on the street said: "It starts in the yard as soon as the main drains get flooded and it backs up in Lewis Close and it comes back up out the drains.

"I'm the lowest point so I was getting the worst of it."

A spokesperson for Southern Water said:  "We recognise that every flooding incident is hugely distressing for our customers, and we are very sorry that residents in Lewis Close experienced this.  

"We have engineers on site investigating the issue and are concentrating our efforts to resolve any asset failure that may have contributed to this incident.  

"We take these matters extremely seriously and are working hard to make incidents like these an exception."

Liberal Democrat councillor Sean Macleod said: "It's really frustrating for the residents on Lewis Close and the surrounding homes because they are flooding pretty much every winter continuously and nothing is being done by Southern Water.

"I have lived here eleven years and this was first reported to me four years ago and it's gone on since then.

"Southern Water are not paying out any compensation to any of the families affected and it's clearly their issue because it's sewage water and they keep burying their heads in the sand."

Some properties have been affected for five years running.

Residents are concerned this winter could be the worst yet unless infrastructure is improved.