Borough battling sewage problems calls on utility companies to reveal future plans

borough battling sewage problems calls on utility companies to reveal future plans

Councillor Charlotte Green mentioned issues in the River Tweed near Stapleton Pumping Station, which parish councillor Jim Buck highlighted last year.

Sewage is bubbling up in back gardens in a Leicestershire borough, councillors have revealed during a discussion about the pressure on critical infrastructure caused by new development. At a meeting of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council on Tuesday, members voted to ask water, electricity and gas suppliers to appear before the council and explain what measures they are taking to ensure infrastructure can cope with future development in the area.

During the discussion, several councillors mentioned issues currently affecting residents, with Councillor Mark Bools saying that in Grace Road in Desford, ‘we have raw sewage running down the street’, while Councillor Ann Pendlebury said sewage was also ‘coming up’ in houses in Hinckley’s Clarendon Ward.

Councillor David Cope, who brought the motion before his fellow councillors said: “We know there are people who’ve got raw sewage coming up in their gardens. This should never happen in 2024. So I would like the opportunity to talk to some of the representatives of these organisations. We’re building all these properties, we’re building all the huge sheds down the A5. The fact of the matter is that we keep on building. And do we know that there is the right supplies? Do they have a plan?”

He added: “We keep paying our bills and keep paying the water authorities and what do we get? Raw sewage. It’s not good enough.”

Council leader Stuart Bray welcomed the motion, and said: “These are private companies who are answerable to their shareholders. We know the government isn’t going to hold them to account because they never have yet. That’s why they keep paying out these outrageous bonuses which is why we keep getting sewage dumped in our rivers and streams. Let’s hold these people to account.”

Another councillor said it was important the council not be ‘fobbed off’. Councillor James Moore said utility companies – particularly water companies – had claimed the issues were ‘a long term problem’ that would take years to fix. “One of the major arguments for the privatisation of water was that it would provide the investment to modernise the water infrastructure so we could deal with those problems,” he said. “And yet here we are more than 30 years on. We’ve got sewage in the rivers, sewage in the seas, and now we’ve even got it coming up in our back gardens. I think there has to be a point where we say enough is enough. And I do hope the next government, whatever colour it is, it will bring water back into public ownership and make the water facilities and those that run the water industry accountable to the public.”

Last year, LeicestershireLive reported on sewage pumping from a storm overflow into the River Tweed at the Stapleton Lane Pumping Station near Barwell. During the meeting, Councillor Charlotte Green stressed there was ‘no wildlife’ in the water beyond where the pumping station is. “The sewage is not only affecting us, it’s affecting all wildlife,” she said.

But Councillor Maureen Cook revealed that ongoing work on fields near Burbage is due to Severn Trent providing ‘waste treatment for 114,000’. She said the parish council hadn’t been told of the nature of the works until last week, even though she had seen it going on for a year. “But it would have been so much more useful had this authority been notified before work started,” she added. “We would have known and could then have reassured our residents with facts rather than rumours.”

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