Penryn trader shocked as sewage 'gushes' down street and into warehouse

A trader has described the moment raw sewage came "gushing" up through the pavement in a Cornish town on Monday 21 October.

The burst happened on Commercial Road in Penryn, spilling foul smelling water into the street.

Caroline Cox, development director at Robotmother, said: "It was quite a shock. The smell was disgusting. It was actually coming into Jubilee Warehouse which is one of our buildings.

"Mid-morning, suddenly the pavement rose and the cycle path rose and faeces came out onto the street and it was just gushing because it was being pumped, because of the way the sewers have to pump up towards College Hill.

"Fortunately, the whole building is elevated so it only came into the loading bay and we were able to deal with it really quickly."

South West Water said it had invested £850,000 to replace the main and "stop issues like this occurring".

It said it aimed to complete the final stages of the replacement scheme in May 2025.

Ms Cox added: "It's frustrating because we know [this street] has been shut for a significant amount of time - in January, then at Easter time.

"We know though that the work hadn't been completed. It's only ever been partially done and they said that they could complete the works if they had six weeks of no rain.

"Well it's Cornwall, isn't it? That ain't really happening.

"So there is a level of frustration that the infrastructure has got to this point, to be honest. It goes into the river, we've noticed there is stuff in the river that shouldn't be there. It's disgusting.

"For businesses, this is really disruptive. It took me a really long time to get in this morning."

A South West Water spokesperson said: "Our teams worked through the night and fixed the burst pipe on Commercial Road in the early hours of this morning.

"We are now working hard to reinstate the road so we can remove the temporary traffic lights as quickly as possible."