Residents speak out about their smelly sewage hell at 'pooh corner' in Milton Keynes

Anglian Water bosses have apologised for putting a street of residents through a sewage problem so severe that they dubbed themselves the 'houses at Pooh Corner'.

Problems in Woodall Close on Middleton began almost three weeks ago when, unbeknown to residents, some of the main sewers leading to the borough's Cotton Valley sewage works became blocked.

Cotton Valley, situated at Pineham, serves a population equivalent of 2.57 million and treats 22,240 tonnes of dry solids per year.

Anglian Water now say the blockage problem was caused by a third party dumping rubble down manholes and it is investigating to find the culprit.

One of the city's major pumping stations to Cotton Valley is in Woodall Close, in a car park used for visitors to Ouzel Park.

An underground tank normally collects the sewage from Middleton and several surrounding estates and quietly pumps it to Cotton Valley without residents even realising.

But things started to go stinkingly wrong in the first week of September.

"These huge tankers started coming down our street every hour of the day and night, seven days a week," claimed one resident.

"They were going to the pumping station in the car park, sucking out the sewage and transporting it to Cotton Valley. The noise and the disruption to the households in the street was horrendous."

Another resident said: "Our houses literally shook at these huge tankers went past on the hour and every hour. It was keeping people awake at night.

"We kept asking Anglian Water what was happening and how long it would go on for, but we had no explanation."

The smell was also a problem, with the procedure meaning raw sewage was slopped onto the car park, which was closed for the duration.

"We started referring to ourselves as the 'houses on Pooh Corner'. It was not pleasant," said the resident.

Late last week, after more than two weeks of tanker visits, the problem suddenly stopped and peace, along with fresh air, was restored.

"We assume the blockage, wherever it was, was fixed. But nobody told us," said the resident.

A spokesman for Anglian Water told the Citizen: "Earlier this month our teams were notified that the sewers surrounding Cotton Valley in Milton Keynes had become blocked due to a third party disposing of rubble down the nearby manholes.

"Work to clear the sewers was undertaken under emergency road works and we used tankers to ensure customers could continue to use their facilities as normal, and to protect the environment from any sewage spills.

“This work has now finished and we would like to apologise to local residents for any disruption caused during this incident. We are continuing with investigations surrounding the incident.”