Family gardens in a Berkshire village are flooded with foul-smelling sewage after storms Ciara and Dennis put ‘enormous pressure’ on water systems
- The filthy water flooded gardens in the village of Three Mile Cross, near Reading
- Children couldn’t play outside and toys were binned after they were left soaking
- Thames Water said ‘sorry’ for delay in mending the problem caused by weather
Family gardens were left flooded with reeking sewage water after Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis put ‘enormous pressure’ on sewage systems.
Children were unable to play outside and toys had to be binned after they were left soaking in the filthy water in the village of Three Mile Cross, Shinfield.
It follows a fortnight of downpours and flooding up and down the country that started with Storm Ciara, continued with Storm Dennis and kept going with this weekend’s storms.
The area’s utility provider Thames Water said they were ‘sorry’ for the delay in mending the problem which was caused by the weather putting ‘enormous pressure’ on the company’s sewers, pumping stations and treatment sites.
Family gardens were left flooded with reeking sewage water after Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis put ‘enormous pressure’ on sewage systems in the village of Three Mile Cross, Shinfield (pictured)
Father-of-two Greg Fenko told BerkshireLive: ‘My kids can’t go outside, and it means we’re going to have to throw out of their toys because they’re contaminated.’
He wrote a formal complaint to Thames Water which said that sewage spills over into his garden every year.
His daughters – aged two and three – were forced to say indoors in the summer because of a fault with a sewage pump.
Frances Lancaster, 31, who has a two-week-old baby and another young child, faced the same problem.
Areas up and down the country were hit by severe flooding over the last fortnight. Most of Severn Stoke in Worcestershire was underwater
The poor weather started with Storm Ciara, continued with Storm Dennis and kept going with this weekend’s storms. Pictured Severn Stoke in Worcestershire was mostly underwater
She said: ‘It was certainly surreal to see the children’s paddling pool floating around the garden.
‘We’ve not been outside since, I’m terrified to think what it smells like.’
Local resident for over 40 years Gill Browning, 76, claims the problems started when a housing estate popped up near the houses – and another one is being built behind them.
She said: ‘We’ve had this three times since Christmas.’
Motorists drive through wintry conditions at Leeming Bar in North Yorkshire today after overnight snow hits parts of the UK
A Thames Water spokeswoman said: ‘Our engineers visited the Three Mile Cross area last week to begin an investigation into the exact cause of the flooding and are due to continue that work today.
‘A clean-up team is scheduled to visit tomorrow to disinfect the flooded areas, work that only can only be done once the water has fully drained away.
‘We’re sorry that we didn’t get to all the affected customers as quickly as they and we would normally expect.
A car that has come off the road in snow in Bedale, North Yorkshire, today after overnight flurries hit parts of the UK
‘The volumes of groundwater and surface water from the two recent storms put enormous pressure on our sewers, pumping stations and treatment sites and, although we’ve had extra teams out supporting our customers, it’s been taking longer than usual for us to get to everyone.’
The weekends storms have today culminated in blankets of snow up and down the county with more than 300 schools closed.
The North of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland took the brunt of the severe weather this morning, while further south towns will battle fresh flooding which poses a threat to life in the worst-affected areas.
More than 100 schools were closed in each of Bradford and County Durham, while dozens were shut in North Yorkshire.
There were also closures in areas including Gateshead, Northumberland, Leeds and Fife.