Shrewsbury man tells of year-long sewage misery
A father-of-two from Shrewsbury has lifted the lid on a year-long saga which he says has seen drains backing up waste into his house and sewage flooding his family's garden.
Toby Leech, who runs a family restaurant in Shrewsbury, said he felt he couldn't let his one-year-old son out into the garden due to fears over his safety due to problems with shared drain serving his home in Frankwell.
He said the drain was permanently blocked and was being cleared out on a weekly basis. But he said the problem was also affecting his neighbours and challenged officials at Severn Trent to find a long-term solution to the problem.
Mr Leech, who brought his terraced house in New Street a year ago, said engineers were having to constantly unblock the drain because of a broken pipe that hasn't been replaced.
And he said the floods of recent weeks had made the problem worse.
He said: "It is a massive bone of contention on this street because we are all so fed up of it. It is a shared drain so whose responsibility is it exactly.
"My little boy is two in May and we can't let him go out there because of the raw sewage. They have admitted that it is their problem, but it is getting to the point now where it is being unblocked on a weekly basis."
Severn Trent Water reportedly clears more then 55,000 sewage blockages a year.
A spokesman for the water firm said: "We take issues with our sewers seriously. Since we were first told about a problem in November, we have been out to check the sewer and carry out an investigation.
"We have cleaned the sewer, which unfortunately has been affected by blockages that have developed as a result of a build up of silt and debris in the pipe.
"Our team carried out further investigations using cameras. We'd like to say sorry for any inconvenience and we'll keep in contact with residents to let them know of any more work on sewers serving homes on the road."
