A MAN who is trying to set up a fishery in Accrington claims the poor sewerage system near his land is stopping him launching his dream business.

Tony Devine wants start a carp fishery. He bought the land in Bamford Crescent in 2000 and has been granted planning permission for the venture.

He has been building the business ever since but has had to put it on hold because when it rains heavily the sewerage system nearby is overflowing on to his land. Now United Utilities has sent him a letter telling him that workers will be coming on to his land to connect properties on a new housing development, in nearby Southwood Drive, to the sewer.

But Mr Devine, 29, said he will try and stop them until they tackle the existing problem.

He added: "There is human excrement flooding out and something needs to be done about it. On the worst occasion in 2002 it flooded into my lake.

"You can't insure fish so I cannot risk putting any into the lake yet because sewage like that would just kill them.

"I have asked United Utilities to sort out the problem, but I have been told they do not know when that work will be done.

"In the meantime my business is in limbo. My business partner has already pulled out because of this."

He said: "I just don't know how they can connect more houses to it without solving the problem causing the sewage to overflow."

A spokesman for United Utilities said: "The sewer network is not designed to cope with very heavy rainfall and sometime ago the sewer did unfortunately overflow into a stream and on to the customer's land.

"We are due to lay pipes to connect to the public sewer, which we have a legal obligation to do.

"We are not anticipating that this will contribute to further flooding."