Our picturesque town has been ruined by foul smell… a tank of sewage was moved nearby – it shouldn’t have happened
A PICTURESQUE town has been “ruined” by a foul smell caused by raw sewage dumped nearby.
A tank of sludge landed on the Surrey town of Camberley after being moved from elsewhere in an “emergency”.
But it’s since been left neglected for weeks, according to Surrey Heath Borough Council chiefs.
Thames Water has been blamed for bringing the untreated sewage in from elsewhere then failing to speed up dealing with it.
Officials say the stench has been “blighting people’s summer“.
A large tank of untreated sewage has recently been moved into Camberley Sewage Treatment Works from elsewhere, causing a foul smell spreading across the surrounding area.
The council has now accused Thames Water of having “failed repeatedly to put in place reliable, suitable and sufficient odour mitigation measures”.
The sludge has still not been processed and people living nearby have complained of having to keep windows closed and stay indoors to try to avoid the “putrid” aroma.
Officials wrote to the firm on July 18 demanding “urgent action to mitigate the foul smells emanating from the tank”.
Thames Water was running “odour suppression measures” for eight hours each day but the council wanted this to be around the clock.
Yet a 24-hours-a-day operation was not put in place until August 1 “despite the urgency of the situation”, according to the council’s deputy leader Morgan Rise.
He expressed sympathy for the “large number” of people living nearby who are being “subjected to the foul odour from the site”.
And he insisted it was “entirely Thames Water’s responsibility”.
He added: “It should never have happened in the first place and has gone on far too long, blighting so many people’s summer.
“We will continue to press for the best outcome for our residents.”
Further site visits are planned to check on progress.
Local resident Thomas George has described the stench as “really really unpleasant”, adding: “You don’t want to open the windows – you feel like you’re trapped indoors.”
And new mum Daisy Monk told ITV News the “putrid” strench was “ruining day-to-day life”.
She said: “It’s embarrassing how bad the smell is.”
Thames Water has told the local authority it would finish processing the sewage by the end of this month while also apologising to locals.
A spokesperson said: “We are working hard to fix the issue, processing and removing the extra sludge as quickly as we can.
“This will enable us to clean the sewage storage tanks over the next few weeks and will ensure odour levels return to normal.”
The Environment Agency said it had sent specialist officers to the site to help ensure “odour is controlled and does not cause a nuisance”.
Thames Water was recently hit with a multi-million pound fine for polluting rivers.
The company was charged £3.3million after millions of litres of undiluted sewage was allowed to flow into two rivers in October 2017.
These were not far from Camberley – the Gatwick Stream and the River Mole between Crawley in West Sussex and Horley in Surrey.
The latest controversy comes amid nationwide concerns about vast volumes of raw sewage being discharged into UK waterways.
Urgent health warnings were issued to 54 beaches across the UK last month due to sewage pollution – after 1,504 sewage spills affected Blue Flag beaches in England last year.
The worst affected was Blackpool Sands beach, Environment Agency figures suggested – with 65 sewage discharges by South West Water lasting 1,014 hours.
Earlier this month video footage captured the moment raw sewage was pumped directly into the water at Harlyn Bay Beach in Cornwall
Meanwhile, people living in newbuild homes have also complained about the state of their properties and neighbourhoods.
New homes put up in Bollington in Cheshire have fuelled anger after apparently being left to rot – while residents moving into a new estate in New Waltham, Lincolnshire, found themselves unable to park on their own drives.
A family were devastated after their £345,000 dream newbuild in Grimsby turned out to be a home from hell.
And dozens of residents of a Hartlepool estate had to shower with bottled water for a week when their water supply was contaminated.