‘MY GARDEN SMELLS LIKE A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY’
Disabled mum’s fury over human waste flooding her home
ANGRY Erica Hampton says her life is being made a misery by the human wase that keeps flooding into her garden.
The 45-year-old says the garden of her Newstead home ‘smells like a third world country’ because of the faeces that regularly wash up in it.
It has meant she and her family have been forced to keep their doors and windows shut since the summer.
She says water firm Severn Trent has sent workmen out ‘every week’ – but they have failed to fix the problem.
Mrs Hampton, who lives at the property with her husband and 20-year-old son, says problems with the waste started in July – a month after she finished work on it.
“The smell is as if you are in a third world country. When next door flush their toilet it comes into my garden. You are smelling fresh faeces.
“Me and my husband are disabled and I’ve got my 20 year old son and my dogs – my little jack russell got in the water one time and I had to bathe her and take her to the vets to check if she was okay.
“We wasted so much money on the back garden. We did it up with gravel and everything. We’ve had to take all that off because it’s soaked in wastewater, it stinks. We’ve lost a lot of money through it.”
Mrs Hampton – who suffers from multiple sclerosis and bipolar disorder – added: “It’s so depressing.
“We can’t open the windows or the doors because of the smell. We can’t let the dogs out the back. When I’m not feeling my best I have to take the dogs for a longer walk because they can’t go outside and have a run, it’s putting pressure on me.
“I have to ask my son or my mum to help me walk the dogs. It’s disgusting and they are treating me like I’m thick, I’m not thick. I want them to fix it and compensate me for the garden.
“All the soil and grass has got to be taken out because of the smell. I spent a couple of hundred pounds on it. I am disappointed with Severn Trent.”
Mrs Hampton says she is waiting for Severn Trent to contact her about what will happen next.
“Sometimes they come out more than once a week,” she said. “They keep saying they have done it but it comes back. We then have to wait days for them to come back.
“A supervisor came out last month and they said they are not sure where it is but there might be a four foot bit of pipe they can’t get to so it will have to be dug up. But they might not do it because it’s too expensive.
“They had a meeting and said they will call me but yet again I am waiting for them to call me back.”
A Severn Trent spokesman said: “We’re sorry to hear about the issues Ms Hampton has been experiencing.
“We are currently investigating the cause of the problems, with teams most recently visiting the site last Friday. However due to access restrictions they will be re-attending at earliest opportunity to use a CCTV camera to fully inspect the pipe to understand the cause of the issues.
“If investigations show the problem is due to an issue on our network, it will be our priority to ensure the issue is fixed, and everything is back to normal as soon as possible.”