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Thursday, 28th August 2008

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Farmer's fears over sewage floods



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A RETIRED farmer has blamed house building in Longridge for floods of raw sewage on his land.
Thomas Redmayne of Shay Farm says he has spent years facing the floods and smells from an overflow pipe.
And he says repeated heavy rainfalls - particularly this summer's - plus steady increases in housing in Longridge, are causing the problem.
"The overflow pipe was right when it was put in 30 years ago," he said. "It goes into Savick Brook and on down to the River Ribble.
"In the last 10 years the volume has increased so much that full bore raw sewage from the main sewer spills out and is left around the pipe. The smell in warm weather is awful.
"If it didn't overflow it would just blow the manholes in Longridge. One way of tackling it would be to put in big holding tanks to take the excess."
Mr Redmayne, the third generation of his dairy and sheep farming family at Shay Farm, has reported the sewage floods on many occasions to the Environment Agency and the pipe owners, United Utilities.
"They do come and clean up after a flood but haven't solved the situation - they seem to pass the buck," he said.
"I can't understand how they get away with it - if I had allowed that situation as a farmer, I would have been in court next week!"
In statements both authorities say they are looking into the problem. Environment Officer, John Neville said: "Mr Redmayne contacted us on July 8 in relation to the sewage overflow pipe.
"Following the call, we immediately contacted United Utilities who own the pipe and are responsible for the maintenance and clearing of any sewage overflow.
"We made attempts to contact Mr Redmayne on July 8 to advise him of our actions, however we were unsuccessful in reaching him. We then advised United Utilities to feed back to Mr Redmayne following their investigation.
"We are now awaiting a full report from United Utilities which will tell us what caused the sewage overflow."
Helen Wilson of United Utilities stated: "Sewers carry a mixture of foul water and the rainwater that runs off roads and rooftops. Sewer systems are designed with overflow points such as this one at Shay Lane so that during heavy rain they can spill into a watercourse rather than back up and cause flooding.
"The Shay Lane overflow has been operating exactly as designed, under the terms of our consent from the Environment Agency. Sometimes unsightly rubbish litters the brook after a spill, and if notified we will always arrange for this to be cleaned up.
"There are hundreds of these sewer overflows in Lancashire. The Environment Agency identifies the worst for inclusion in our environmental improvement programme. We are investing £100 million in Preston alone, upgrading seven overflows over the next two years - investment funded by customers' water bills."

The full article contains 483 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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  • Last Updated: 30 July 2008 1:22 PM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Longridge
 
 
  

 
 


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