Wraysbury resident calls for responsibility to be taken over cleaning up raw sewage in property grounds

A Wraysbury resident who has had sewage flowing into the grounds of his property following the recent flooding has called for responsibility to be taken for its clean-up.

Paul Hewson, who lives on Friary Island, said the area flooded ‘quite badly’ during the major flooding in January and, as the water went down, his property and the surrounding area was left covered in about two inches of raw sewage.

Mr Hewson said he had to pay more than £800 to have it privately cleared away, with 87 buckets of sewage collected from the garage, underneath the house and the patio.

Mr Hewson said that, since then, the water has come up into the back garden of his property again, leading to extra costs to clear away the raw sewage after the water has subsided.

He said he contacted both Thames Water and the Environment Agency regarding the issue but said neither of the organisations took responsibility for the issue.

“I think it’s appalling,” Mr Hewson said.

He added: “I would like someone to say look, this is our fault, we’re responsible for it.

“We should pay the cost of clearing it up.

“I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”

A spokesperson for Thames Water said: “We’re sorry to hear that Mr Hewson has been impacted by external sewer flooding following recent heavy rainfall.

“We can confirm that our customer service team spoke with Mr Hewson on February 14 and advised him that we needed him to wait for the water to reside before we could investigate.

“However, when Mr Hewson rang on February 16, he advised us that he had paid a private contractor to carry out the clean-up.

“Unfortunately, this meant that our team was unable to investigate the cause of flooding or carry out a clean-up at his property.

“We always recommend that customers speak with their home insurers when flooding occurs.”

The spokesperson added: “Following the recent wet weather, we have supported local customers who have been impacted by external flooding.

“In these instances, customers have waited for the water to recede enabling our engineers to investigate and carry out clean-ups in line with our policies.”

As part of its clean-up process, Thames Water can carry out a number of tasks, including removing excess liquids and most of the sewer debris from outside people’s homes and disinfecting external hard surfaces including paths, driveways and decking.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We know the devastation that flooding causes and our priority is to protect communities from it as much as possible.

“Floodwater can contain hazardous substances, including sewage.

“The Environment Agency is committed to reducing flood-risk to homes and businesses along the River Thames, working with Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

“We encourage people who live or work in flood risk areas to sign up to our flood warning service, via gov.uk/flood or Floodline on 0345 988 1188.”

The Environment Agency stated that Thames Water is responsible for managing sewage and local authorities oversee public health matters.

The agency explained that it can intervene to prevent or investigate sewage pollution.

The agency has written to Mr Hewson, offering to discuss Storm Henk and it said it looks forward to hearing from him in due course.