Northborough residents anger as Anglian Water left stumped over sewer pipe repair

A water company has apologised to villagers and admitted it still doesn’t know how it will fix a broken sewage pipe - four months after work began.

Church Street in Northborough was closed in February when Anglian Water began repairs to a damaged section of pipe, advising residents it should take six weeks and be completed by March 14.

The pipe, laid in the 1960s, now sits under the local water table, and engineers have struggled to pump out enough ground water to work on the damaged section.

With the road remaining shut and repair work yet to start, Anglian Water has decided to fill in the hole until a solution is found.

A pump and generators installed to bypass waste water from the broken section through a temporary above-ground pipe will remain outside several homes, including Kerry Ward’s.

“We've got a constant noise and vibration 24 hours a day, and there’s a horrible sewer smell when it's pumping,” she said.

“We have to keep the front windows closed, and a lot of the light from the front is blocked because of the noise barriers around the generators - which don't work.

“We still haven't reached a solution and now they're just going to fill in the hole and open the roads with traffic lights, but everything outside our house is going to be left no end date in sight.

“Surely they can't leave us like this? It could be six months, it could be a year. It could be anything.”

Tankers were initially sent to pump out the sewage when the issue was reported late in December until February when the pump was brought in and work was due to begin.

A second letter was sent to residents 10 days before the original March 14 deadline warning of further delays, followed by another on March 24 explaining that external contractors - believed to be from the Netherlands - were needed to remove the ground water.

A fourth letter then landed on doormats on April 11, with work expected to start by April 22.

Lesley Newitt, landlady at The Packhorse pub in Lincoln Road, near the junction with Church Street, said trade has been hit by the road closure and she has written to North West Cambridgeshire MP Sam Carling.

“We have people who come from villages to the other side of Northborough, such as Peakirk and Newborough, and they're not going to do a big detour to get to the pub, so I believe it has affected the business,” she said.

“And it looks bad for the pub when you're driving along the road to see huge vehicles and diversion signs everywhere.

“I just can't believe that it takes a water company all of these months and they still haven't got anywhere.”

The road closure has added a three-mile detour for farmer Andy Sharpe to access his land, costing thousands of pounds in extra fuel.

It has also had a financial impact on Sue and Andy Garford who live in Church Street and also run an Airbnb letting there.

“I had someone cancel a two-month booking in between a house move because they had a small child and they would have needed to sleep, and I’ve had another two-week booking cancel,” said Sue.

“Some people come and they're very sympathetic as they know it's not our fault.

“The garden and patio are as lovely as ever, but outside it does not look like the beautiful English street that it normally would and guests from America and Australia want to have that experience.

“It's just gone on too long. If they could have done it in the original time frame, we understand it's got to be done, but it's just delay after delay. Now we’re in June and it's still going on.”

Residents have questioned the amount of money spent, including the hire of specialist equipment to remove the water.

Lesley added: “Somewhere along the line someone should be accountable. We pay a lot of money in water rates, which I fear is just paying for someone to stick a big hole in the road and then fill it in again.”

Anglian Water representatives are to attend a public meeting on Monday (June 9) at Northborough Village Hall, from 6pm, for residents to air their concerns.

The water company told the Mercury it was “a very complicated repair”.

“Unfortunately, following extensive camera surveys to identify the problem and bringing in specialist equipment to reduce the huge amount of groundwater in the sewer without interrupting residents’ water or wastewater services, groundwater levels are still not low enough for our teams to safely carry out the work,” said an Anglian Water spokesperson.

“To minimise disruption while we work out the best long-term solution, we’ve made the decision to fill in the section of road in question and reopen it to the public, with temporary traffic lights to keep everyone safe.

"To keep the sewer flowing until we can complete the repair, we’ll continue to use pumps to take wastewater from the damaged part of the network into the pipes that are working as they should.

“We’re sorry for any disruption they’re causing while they’re in use and thank residents for their patience while we get things back to how they were.”