A furious dad says his daughter has been reduced to tears as human waste has been pouring into her garden due to a collapsed sewer.
Peter Taft, 55, says human poo has been washing up into his daughter’s garden in Stoke-on-Trent for the last month.
As a result, his daughter Rebecca has been forced to destroy the artificial grass she had in the garden and needs to keep her windows closed at all times because of the smell.
Peter says workers from Severn Trent have been out numerous times to check a nearby manhole that is believed to be the cause of the issues and was told by one worker that a drain had collapsed.
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Peter, who owns the property, says problems with the waste began at the start of April. The dad-of-one said: "My daughter rang me when I was on holiday in Turkey to say there was raw sewage and human poo over her garden.
"I said I'd get one of my mates to come round and he went round the next day. He looked at the manhole in the entryway and he couldn't get a rod down it and he thought it was a collapsed drain.
"They reported it to Severn Trent. They've have been out more than 10 times and they've failed to turn up about five times.
"It's rough up here so I tell Rebecca to keep the entryway locked, but we've had to leave it open as we don't know when the workmen will show up. I've had to kick two druggies out of there for shooting up.
"My daughter hasn't been able to open her windows because it stinks. The sewage is coming back up the drains in her backyard. There's tissue all over the garden. It just isn't nice.
"It's destroyed her artificial turf that cost her £250 and she only got it last year when we did her garden up and now it's ruined. We're going to have to throw it away.
"She couldn't flush the toilet because every time she flushed it was coming out of her garden. The toilet was full of tissue.
"Over the Easter bank holiday weekend, she couldn't go out in her garden because it was stinking. She had to take her barbecue round to her friends and have a barbecue there instead. She couldn't have her friends round to hers."
A Severn Trent spokesperson said: "We’d like to apologise to those affected by the collapsed sewer on Cardwell Street in Northwood.
"We’ve had teams on site assessing the issue to determine what work needs to be done and we’ve scheduled work to fix the collapsed sewer early next week – once work starts we’ll look to get this completed as soon as possible.
"We will be in close communication with our customers in the area to notify them about the work that will take place.
"Again, we would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the collapsed sewer, as we know how distressing this type of flooding can be."
Topics: UK News
Claire Reid