Christmas lights covered in sewage as drain floods
- Published
Residents of a Surrey village saw their gardens submerged in sewage and dirty toilet paper after heavy rain during Storm Bert caused drains to overflow.
The neighbours from, Alfold, near Cranleigh, told BBC Radio Surrey they had just put up their Christmas lights outside their homes when the spill happened on Wednesday.
Alfold Parish Council said 17 homes in the area had been badly affected by stormy weather last week.
Thames Water apologised and said it planned to re-line its pipes to stop groundwater from entering the sewers.
Catherine Urben, who has children aged one and two, said she had come downstairs in the morning and saw her property in Clappers Meadow had flooded with sewage up to her front door.
She said: "We put the Christmas tree up two days before all of this happened - not a good start."
She said flooding also happened in March.
Ms Urben said she phoned Thames Water for help on Wednesday, but was left waiting until the following afternoon.
"Luckily it drained by 6pm but I was just left with chunks of dirty toilet paper all over my property," she said.
"We're just getting fed up of it now."
Her neighbour Alyissia Russell said flooding happened "any time we have heavy rain".
But on Wednesday morning, her husband found "the whole front garden submerged in sewage".
"All of our Christmas lights were under water. It's awful," she said.
In a statement, Thames Water apologised and said heavy rainfall from Storm Bert had "caused our sewer system to overload, resulting in diluted wastewater to escape from manholes".
"We have made plans to re-line our pipes located behind Clappers Orchard, to prevent groundwater from infiltrating the sewers", it said.
The firm added that it would inspect the amount of surface water from a private pumping station in the village, and the wider network to "understand the mechanisms of flooding in this area".
- Published2 days ago
- Published3 days ago
- Published9 October
Follow BBC Surrey on Facebook, external and on X., external Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk, external or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.