Sewage 'appearing' outside Aldbourne homes

Residents of a Wiltshire village said sewage is appearing on the streets outside their homes.

One Aldbourne resident, Michael Cowan, said the smell and piles of toilet paper from the drains were "revolting".

A Thames Water spokesman said the sewer system in some parts of the region was unable to cope with the volume of rainwater going into the drains.

He said they were doing their best to clear the sewage by sending lorries to try to remove it.

Mr Cowan said it had been happening for about six weeks.

Sodden ground

He said: "There's loo paper and various other things there. They're meant to be clearing all this every other day but they haven't been.

"We are lucky we [live] just that few yards further down [from the overflowing drain], but you can smell it obviously all over the village."

A spokesperson for Thames Water said: "While our sewer network in Aldbourne is working as it should, it is struggling with the sheer volume of water going through it after England's wettest year on record.

"The ground is already sodden, so flood water is running across the surface and into our sewers, which are designed to take waste water from homes and businesses, not rivers too.

"We are currently using tankers to take away sewage from the centre of Aldbourne while focusing our efforts to help protect people from internal flooding."