Massive road disruption for Ludlow as work starts to stop sewage flowing into river

Ludlow Town Council has been told that the works will start in Temeside at 7.30am on June 6 and run right the way through to 5pm on June 26 with a diversion route in force all the time.

Severn Trent Water has given a presentation to local councillors on its plans for a deep excavation of trial holes for its Green Recovery Programme. The plan is to finally stop sewage heading into the river Teme from a network of ancient combined sewer overflows.

Local MP Philip Dunne has been a vocal critic of sewage pollution overflowing into the rivers whenever there is heavy rain.

Shropshire Ludlow councillor Andy Boddington said: "These works are essential.

"We can’t keep flushing the stuff in our toilets into the river every time there is heavy rainfall, which is fairly normal around here.

"The disruption however will be significant.

"Temeside will be closed for three weeks. The 722 bus service will not be able to serve the stop at the bottom of Old Street. I have asked Minsterley Motors if they can reconsider this."

Councillor Boddington added: "Water companies have got away with dumping sewage into waterways for far too long."

The councillor said the problem faced in Ludlow is that there is not sufficient capacity to for rainwater and sewerage on Temeside.

"This leads to discharges into the Teme which is a site of special interest (SSSI). Severn Trent now proposes to reduce discharges to one a year or fewer," he said.

He said a major aim of the proposed work is to increase the diameter of a sewer pipe to take the equivalent of more than 9,000 toilet flushes.

Councillor Boddington added: "The works that begin next week are to look at what lies below the road in Temeside.

"There will be more information on the next stages after this exploratory work. It will be disruptive but we must stop flushing sewerage into the Teme SSI."