AN ENGINEER has called out Thames Water after ‘a lake of sewage’ spilled on his road.  

Patrick Crotty, a chartered engineer who worked on building the M40 motorway, slammed Thames Water after foul sewage spills have affected his road in Downley on and off for months.

Since October, a lake of sewage “couple of inches deep” forms outside the Co-Op store every day on Plomer Green Lane, he claimed.

Mr Crotty said: “It’s been like that for weeks now. It hasn’t rained for weeks, but there’s a lake of sewage that goes to the middle of the road.

“Cars come driving up and they spray the sewage that goes to the middle of the road.

“I saw a lady with a push pram getting sprayed, and it really makes you cringe.”

He had tried to report the problem to Thames Water since October, but he felt the water company hadn’t taken enough action to solve the problem for good. 

Instead, they send “a man in a van a day or two later, and he calls for a tanker which might arrive in another day or two,” he said.

“It’s 51 houses worth of sewage that is flowing into the road. It’s not good news.

“It’s really worse in the morning and evenings when people are having showers.”

As well as being a potential health hazard, he worried the sewage was flowing “straight into the storm sewers” and eventually into local rivers. 

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We first responded to reports of external sewage flooding on Plomer Green Lane in October 2022. Our engineers responded immediately and used tankers to clear the blockage and fixed a collapsed sewage pipe.

“We undertook further investigations after the repair which unfortunately showed concrete further down the pipe which was causing a blockage.

“Given the complexities of the job a specialist team are currently working to cut the concrete out of the pipe. We expect this to solve the issue and would like to thank local customers for their patience whilst we make this repair.”