Park home residents living in sewage 'nightmare' near Ilfracombe

Residents say the smell of sewage is over-bearing, especially in the summer

Occupants of a residential park homes site in north Devon say a problem with sewage is blighting their lives.

Residents at Berrynarbor Park near Ilfracombe said they first told owners Wyldecrest Parks about the issue more than two years ago.

The septic tank system at the park regularly spills raw sewage, causing a strong smell and issues with flies.

Wyldecrest Parks said they had already spent more than £10,000 trying to fix the problem.

They added the system is antiquated and blame interference from "outside parties" for making the situation worse.

They believe some of the issues are self-inflicted such as putting wet wipes in the system and the pumps being removed by third parties.

The site owners believe outside parties may have interfered with the sewage system

Richard Gordon-Wilson, resident of Berrynarbor Park said: "Every time we enter or leave the park you can smell the smell of it, even if you are driving in your car with the windows up.

"In the summer that smell gets a whole lot worse. We can't use the footpath at all because if we did we would have to trudge through sewage, and wade through clouds of flies.

"It is really revolting and it is so off-putting. We are ashamed that our visitors see it when they come, we hate it, and we are finding it impossible to live with but impossible to do something about."

Residents say sewage runs through the walls onto a footpath

Another resident David Hopper has been taking videos to keep a record of the problem.

He said: "Sometimes when I come down here I have to put a cloth over my mouth for the smell and the flies.

"I shouldn't have to be doing that at nearly 78 years old."

There are more than 50 homes on the site and residents pay about £150 a month to include site maintenance.

Mr Gordon-Wilson said: "They leave us languishing in a badly maintained park which was at one time a paradise. It's now a complete nightmare."

A spokesman for Wyldecrest said the leak from the septic tank was due to residents "interfering with the infrastructure of the pump station and dislodging a pipe".

The spokesman said Wyldecrest had replaced the pumps twice and sent a maintenance engineer "on a daily basis to clear wet wipes and blockages from within the pumps to alleviate the discharge of overflow from the septic tank".

Wyldecrest said it was having "open and transparent conversations" with the Environment Agency and the local authority and employed "specialist contractors" to identify and resolve any problems.

In a statement North Devon Council said : "The current situation is clearly unsatisfactory. There is a level of technical complexity with this case which requires the council to take some further expert advice."

The Environment Agency who said: "We will be carrying out enforcement action with Wyldecrest Parks and ensuring a consent to discharge is applied for as soon as possible, and that the sewage system is able to cope with the sewage produced by the park."

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