Great Bedwyn homes flooded with sewage – where were Thames Water?

Two homes in Great Bedwyn, both part of The Knapp estate of sheltered housing, have been flooded with sewage.  The first flood happened the weekend before last (July 7) and last week another home was flooded three times.

The initial incident happened when sewage flooded up through the shower room of Number 31 and flowed out through the front door.  After neighbours had cleared up the worst of the flooding, it was five days later that a more thorough clean-up was carried out by a private contractor brought in by the Aster Group who maintain homes in the area.

Last week Number 12 was flooded with sewage three times.  This home is close to the road and sewage flowed into a rainwater drain and then into the River Dun which runs between the railway and the canal.

Knapp resident Jan Thornton contacted Claire Perry MP who recognised that Thames Water were “quite reluctant” to carry out the necessary clean-up.  When no one from Thames Water had visited by Friday (July 13), Mrs Perry phoned the Chief Executive of Thames Water.

A Thames Water team arrived on Saturday.  But it is not clear whether the full cleansing of all the affected areas has yet taken place.

On Monday morning (July 16) on BBC Wiltshire, a Thames Water spokesman, Craig Rance, apologised sincerely for the problems the residents had been encountering and that some people had been left for so long without help.

It seems that the heavy rainfall simply overwhelmed Great Bedwyn’s sewage pumping station in Frog Lane.   This led to sewage backing up along the pipe that takes it from the village under the railway and the canal.  As an emergency measure Thames Water have been taking excess sewage away by tanker.

This is the second time in five years that homes on The Knapp have experienced this sort of flooding with large quantities of raw sewage.  Residents want to know what action will be taken to prevent this kind of foul flooding.

Mr Rance told Marlborough News Online that he was chasing Thames Water’s planning teams to see what should be done to make sure this does not happen again – and how soon work could be carried out.

On Monday the stench in the two homes is still appalling.  The residents do not like to eat in their homes.  And their gardens still contain the less degradable parts of the flooded sewage.