A homeowner who has faced a six-month battle to rid his home of raw sewage says he was left “absolutely embarrassed” and abused by multiple people who’ve passed his foul-smelling house. Nigel Stedman, 62, claims his neighbour first reported the raw sewage water washing down drains to the front of their homes on Chepstow Road in Newport around six months ago.
Welsh Water denies this and said the first they had heard of the problem was on August 16. “The water was turning green and it was all across the pavement,” Nigel, who lives on the busy city street with his wife and 85-year-old father-in-law, said.
“The neighbour phoned up Welsh Water and they said they would send someone out to us. They came and put some dye down the manhole to see if we’d got any cracks anywhere in the pipework but none of the dye came out until they’d left.
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“I later realised that it was because the crack was in the pipe about halfway up my garden. It is under the ground so we didn’t know, but it was the reason the garden was filling up with raw sewage and it was then sliding down the garden and out the front.
“It really stinks, as soon as you open the front door or get out the car it’s there in your face. It just hits you, absolutely disgusting.”
Nigel said around six weeks ago Welsh Water workers returned to the properties and put a camera down the pipe to assess exactly where the crack was. He says it took until early September for a worker to return to the property to put a metre-long sleeve around the cracked area, but he says they couldn’t install it.
“He said the pipe was all silted up because of the time it had taken for the work to be done,” Nigel continued. “He said he’d need the pipe to be cleaned on the same day for him to get the work done. He did then come back and put the metre-long sleeve on, but it didn’t work.
“Then I had an email the next morning saying the job had been done, to which I responded saying no it definitely hasn’t been done because I can still smell it. They came back again and put some dye down, which all came out pretty quickly, so the crack was still there. It’s all been dragged out for so long I decided I had to go to the press and local councillors.”
The smell has become so strong that people passing by the house have even stopped to rudely criticise Nigel and his neighbour. “People have walked on the pavement and through the sewage and occasionally we’ve had abuse,” Nigel explained.
“People have told me I’m disgusting, that we need to sort it out. It’s been embarrassing. The workers didn't even put a cover over it.
“I’ve been so frustrated by it. It’s disgusting. Children have to walk through it on their way to the school, and it’s a very busy road. I have to work through it a few times a day, so does the dog. I've been scared my wife's father could slip."
After a recent call demanding Welsh Water return to fix the issue, Nigel said he was surprised to return home to find workers already at his house fitting a longer sleeve yesterday, but he isn’t sure whether it has fixed the issue.
A spokeswoman for Welsh Water said according to the engineers the issue was fixed on September 20. They said the issue was first reported to them on August 16, and they visited the property on the day. They attended again on August 23, she said, and carried out a desilt operation.
The organisation said workers returned again the following day to carry out patch repair work which they thought would sort the problem, and they said the family was "kept in constant conversation". Temporary measures were put across the pavement while work was carried out, they added, before the job was completed. Nigel said as of yesterday, though, the issue hadn't been fixed. “We’ll have to wait and see, I hope it’s over,” Nigel added.
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