Housing firm apologises after raw sewage flood

There have been two raw sewage leaks at a block in Kingsway, in Hove, over the last month

A housing association has promised to launch a review after it failed to immediately deal with two raw sewage leaks at a residential building in East Sussex.

There was two sewage leaks in the basement, bin and bike storage area of a block of flats on Kingsway in Hove over the past month.

Resident Dr Dorina Cadar told BBC South East that Clarion Housing Group failed to take action following the first leak for "almost four or five days", and only acted swiftly after the second following a political intervention.

Clarion acknowledged that the "disruption of services over the weekend should have been resolved more promptly".

Dr Cadar said that, given the delays in fixing the first leak, residents decided to reach out to Hove and Portslade MP Peter Kyle after the second on 27 May, which she said accelerated a resolution, with Clarion organising a jet wash for last Friday.

However, Dr Cadar said the jet wash "triggered the fire alarm" which resulted in a complete shutdown of the fire safety system.

In addition, she claimed there were no functioning lifts, hot water or gas in the building between Friday evening and Sunday night.

While the water and lifts were restored on Sunday night, Dr Cadar said she was unsure if the fire alarm was working.

She credited Mr Kyle and his caseworker for going "above and beyond" to help resolve what represented a "serious health risk", she added.

A spokesperson for Clarion apologised to the residents.

"The disruption of services over the weekend should have been resolved more promptly and we'll be reviewing what went wrong to prevent this happening in future," they said.

"Following complaints from the residents, from 1 April we have taken control of managing all services in-house. We're fully committed to providing a good level of service for our residents and will continue to work at pace to address the concerns raised."

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