Properties flooded with sewage after Storm Ciarán

Hellingly resident Raine Grosvenor said she had been forced to live upstairs with her autistic son after her cottage was flooded

Several properties in a village in East Sussex have been flooded with sewage following Storm Ciarán.

A flood warning was in place for the Cuckmere and Bull River in the village of Hellingly over the weekend.

Resident Raine Grosvenor said she had been forced to live upstairs with her autistic son after her cottage was flooded on Saturday.

Southern Water said it had been caused by “recent extreme weather”.

Ms Grosvenor, of Station Road, Hellingly, said her cottage in Station Road had been flooded with more than a foot of sewage water.

“It smells, it’s pitch black and absolutely horrible,” she said.

East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service helped fix her electrics, while neighbours helped clean up her house, Ms Grosvenor added.

'Really stressful'

Penny Strudwick, who lives at the other end of Station Road, said sewage flooding had been an issue for more than 10 years in the village.

“Children are walking along the paths and being splashed with it thinking its water, but it’s not,” she told BBC Radio Sussex.

“I’m not that young now, and the older you get, the more stressful it is.”

Hellingly resident Gill Riches said she was fed up with the “offensive smell”.

“We see the sewage coming out of the drains before the water levels are even high, and you know that is going to be another environmental hazard,” she said.

“Everything has to be decontaminated, which is really stressful.”

• Listen: Hellingly resident Gill Riches speaking to BBC Radio Sussex

A Southern Water spokesperson said teams had visited the affected residents in Hellingly.

“The recent extreme weather has meant that the River Bull has burst its banks, which filled the surface water gullies, flooding the road and two properties,” they said.

“Our specialist teams have previously installed non-return valves to make sure that sewage does not backwash into the properties.”

Wealden MP Nus Ghani said she had been in contact with Southern Water and local parish and district councils to raise individual cases of those affected by flooding in Hellingly and Horam.

Nine flood warnings remain in place across East Sussex and West Sussex, including in Pulborough, Felpham, Barcombe Mills and Fittleworth.