Thames Water 'stole' mother's summer with baby as sewage stench blighted Camberley

• ITV News Meridian's Mel Bloor reports from Camberley Sewage Treatment Works

A mother says Thames Water "stole" the first summer with her four-month-old baby due to a sewage stench from the company's treatment works which lasted for around eight months.

Thames Water has apologised to thousands of customers who were subjected to the unpleasant odour from Camberley Sewage Treatment Works in Surrey.

The smell was caused by the storage of excess waste which was brought to the site from other locations between February and March. It remained there untreated until September.

Daisy Fitzgerald, Resident, said: "Thames Water did completely steal my summer. I was trapped indoors essentially.

"I just didn't want to open a window, couldn't go out in my garden, couldn't spend any family time having barbecues, paddling pool for my daughter, I couldn't do any of that. I was just stuck indoors.

"I had just repeats of baby TV, my partner was back at work, I didn't want my friends or family coming over as I was embarrassed because they would just say 'what is that smell?' every time, so I had no one to talk to.

"My friends and family, who are my support, live here so I could go and see them but again I'm stuck in the same bubble of smelling human faeces day in, day out, for months on end.

"It was very lonely and not great way to welcome a child into the world and into my life and I'll always have that from when she was born, those first few months.

"I'm terrified of what is to come this summer. If it happens again I will be stuck in with a toddler.

"We discussed moving, but we don't have the funds to do that at the moment and we are planning on having another baby but I have absolutely refused to do that while we're living in this house and my life is on hold until I know what's going to happen this summer with the smell."

• Daisy Fitzgerald is "terrified" that the situation will happen again this summer

A damning report by OFWAT and the Consumer Council for Water, released this week, claims residents were left in a "communication black hole".

The two watchdogs say residents endured months of disruption to their daily lives while being left with the impression Thames Water had gone into hiding.

Mike Keil, Consumer Council for Water, said: "It had a really big impact on people's lives. People said it reminded them of Covid.

"They were locked down, trapped inside their house, they couldn't do the simple things like go into their garden, enjoying gardening, kicking a ball around with their kids.

"People couldn't get out to do exercise and that had an impact on their physical and mental health."

The research revealed residents were also frustrated by poor communication from Thames Water with some reporting they only received one update from the company throughout the entire period.

Even when the situation was finally addressed, customers said they did not feel they received an adequate explanation or apology.

Thames Water say they are deeply sorry and have decommissioned the sludge tanks at their Camberley site, so they can't be used to store sewage again.

Ian Ruffell, Head of Wastewater Treatment, Thames Water, said: "We've taken some really key learning from this, we fully support the findings from OFWAT and the Consumer Council for Water report and we've shut down, decommissioned, these tanks for use so this will not happen again and we're investing heavily in the surrounding sites as well.

"We're spending around £1 billion over the next two years to boost resilience to prevent this from happening again but I'm so sorry to all those people who were affected."

In a statement Thames Water said: "We would like to apologise to everyone who was affected by abnormal levels of odour from our sewage treatment works on Riverside Way, last summer.

"Whilst odour can never be completely eliminated from wastewater treatment, the smell from our site last summer was unacceptable. We know how much this affected the local community, and we apologise unreservedly for it.

"The excess odour did not arise from our normal day-to-day operations. In 2023 we experienced issues at several sites, which left us with no option but to store excess sewage sludge in disused emergency storage tanks at Camberley. As warmer weather arrived, the sewage sludge generated strong odours.

"We did not effectively communicate with the community about what was happening, either before or during the incident.

"This caused uncertainty about whether it could have been a permanent issue, and we recognise this may have made it difficult for the community to understand what was happening.

"In future, if we need to speak to residents about any issues, we will be more open and will do so much earlier.

"Also, we did not deploy odour suppression equipment, before the odour became a problem and when we initially installed it, it did not operate continuously.

"We have now reviewed our processes and if ever odour suppression equipment is required at any of our sites, we will be quicker to have it up and running.

"We have decommissioned the emergency sludge storage tanks on site, so that they cannot be used to store sewage sludge again.

"We have also looked at the resilience of our sludge treatment facilities across all our sites and have a plan to invest in them, so that backlogs of untreated sludge do not occur in the future.

"Once again, we offer our sincere apologies to all those affected last summer."

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