Water firm's apology over Langho sewage leak

Sharon Stacey and her partner, Richard Hirst, from Langho, were appalled when the sewage backed-up following a collapse in the main sewer pipe running through their back yard.

The couple, of East View Terrace, returned home at the weekend to find their garden covered in human waste with a mains pipe in Whalley New Road also leaking and gushing out raw sewage.

They and their neighbours reported the problem to United Utilities on Sunday night and tried to scrape and wash the waste away while waiting for engineers to begin their clean-up operation.

United Utilities engineers were sent to the homes on Tuesday and used pressure washers to clean the sewerage which had leaked near the kitchen area of many houses.

However, the problem happened against the next day.

Bosses at United Utilities apologised for the leak and said engineers had not located the problem.

A spokesperson said: “Sewer flooding is very unpleasant and in this case seems to have happened because of blockage, probably something which has been washed into the sewer or possibly something that's been flushed away which shouldn't have been.

"We have now located it using CCTV and a team will remove it this afternoon and make sure the sewer is fully cleaned. After this we will send another camera down to thoroughly check the pipe again and make sure there are no other problems. Hopefully this will stop it happening again.”

Ms Stacey, who has children, Kieran, 21, and Connor, 14, said they wanted the problem sorting out as soon as possible.

She said: “It was absolutely disgusting and we have had to stay inside most of them time because it really smells and it is pretty awful seeing all this waste in the garden.

"We hope that they can fix it soon as it's horrible having to live with this in our gardens."

A woman, who lives on the terrace but wanted to remain anonymous, added: "They didn't have the correct equipment and ended up using our hose pipe to clear it.”