Newbury resident limits visits from sick grandchild as road plagued by sewage

• Kara Digby has been to meet residents impacted by the sewage

A resident from Newbury has limited visits from their sick grandchild because her road is plagued by sewage.

Jo Berridge lives on Newport Road where diluted sewage has been seeping out onto the road since heavy rainfall overloaded the sewer system.

Tankers have been sent in by Thames Water to deal with the problem, but residents say there have been underlying issues for 10 years and that it's time for a permanent solution.

Ms Berridge said: "I have a sick grandchild so visits from him we've limited because you don't know what you're walking in.

"Obviously we take our shoes off when we enter the property but you still don't know what you're bringing in.

"Or indeed as some of my other neighbours and we now think we have it under our properties so you're not sure what germs are invading our space I suppose."

People living on the road have been told the tankers cost £2,000 each a day to hire.

It means Thames Water has spent tens of thousands of pounds since the start of the work in January.

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We recognise how difficult this can be for customers and we’ve been pumping away excess flows from the manholes twice a day, to prevent them from overflowing.

"Our engineers are working incredibly hard to help manage the situation and our priority is to mitigate any further flooding to customers’ properties while the high groundwater and river levels remain high and continue to impact our sewers."

West Berkshire Council says heavy rainfall needs to stop before Thames Water can carry out surveys and long term work can begin.

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