Newbury woman faces 'stressful' start to the year after sewage water floods garden
A woman from Newbury has had a stressful start to 2024 after her garden flooded with sewage on New Year's Eve.
Hayley Ling first noticed the wastewater at her property around a week ago and says the belongings surrounding the house have been ruined.
Ms Ling said: "My front garden is now covered in sewage and the majority of the back garden is now ruined. I've got my decking, patio, hot tub and garden furniture all sitting in contaminated water.
"It's really stressful because we've got three pets which can't now use the garden, so we're having to carry them out to the street. There's flood water and sewage coming the whole way down the path and onto the road.
"It's just really not a nice experience and it doesn't look like it's going to get better anytime soon."
Hayley Ling says the experience has been "stressful"
Hayley says she contacted Thames Water on several occasions and has been told that it could take weeks before the wastewater can be cleared from her property.
She said: "They [Thames Water] have been out but can't actually do anything at the moment with our garden. They have, however, been trying to deal with a drain on Pike Street, but unfortunately we're stuck.
"They say it could be 4-6 weeks until the water finally goes down and they can do a clean-up."
In a statement, a Thames Water spokesperson said: "We responded to reports of external sewer flooding on Newport Road in Newbury on Monday 01 January.
"Our engineers attended the same day and concluded the flooding was caused as a result of Storm Henk. In this instance, the heavy rainfall caused our local sewer system to overload resulting in heavily diluted wastewater to escape from nearby manholes.
"We recognise how difficult this can be for customers and we’ve been pumping away excess flows from the manholes twice a day since, to prevent them from overflowing.
"We are sorry to residents for any distress the flooding may have caused and would like to assure them clean ups of the affected areas are being arranged over the coming days as water levels recede."
Data shows almost every river in England to be exceptionally high, with some rivers reaching their highest flow on record.
The Environment Agency said 125 flood warnings remain in England, including for the River Kennet and River Lambourn.
People are being warned to take precautions, despite the drier weather forecast over coming days.
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