'We cannot live like this’
A wheelchair-dependent woman from Chichester has been unable to use her toilet for days at a time over the last year, thanks to an easilyoverwhelmed drain near her property.
Alison Robb, who lives in Birdham, said her toilet blocks almost every time she tries to use it. After reporting the issue to Hyde Housing, her accommodation provider, she turned to Southern Water, having been told it relates to a nearby water pipe rather than the toilet itself.
That first call-out – in October – led to a short-notice, two-night stay at a nearby hotel while Southern Water drainage engineers worked to empty the pipe responsible for the blockage.
Both Alison and her partner, who is also disabled, hoped it would be the end of what seemed to be a serious issue, but it was barely even the start, and the last 14 months have been characterised by frequent call-outs and constant maintenance, with no sign of a long-term solution.
Despite a relatively uneventful summer, things got especially bad once the autumn rains rolled around.
“Nothing much happened over the summer and we thought everything was going to be okay. Thank god. But as soon as the rain started again, the nightmare came back,” she said. “We had one weekend without any toilet facilities whatsoever. I was calling our handlers, speaking to Southern Water, doing everything I could, and nobody came out. My partner was having to drive us up to Tesco to use the disabled toilet there. I kept telling them ‘this isn't good enough. What are you going to do? We can’t keep living like this’.”
Calling out for a Southern Water engineer often means the water company has to dispatch a tanker to empty the nearby drain, which Miss Robb says is as disruptive as it is embarrassing, especially since she’s the only resident on her road who is affected.
"There’s a tanker outside my door right now. And if it's not raining it’ll be there. But if it is, and there's flooding, they’ll call it off somewhere else – except that's when we really need it. The thing is, we live in a small close. The neighbours are getting fed up of this huge, noisy tanker. We need something in place so we can use the toilet like anyone else.”
Now, with no end to her problems in sight, Miss Robb is calling on Southern Water to take real, significant action and solve the problem for good. “I need an answer: Can you fix this problem? And if so, it needs to be yes, and I need to know that it’s going to be done ASAP,” she said. “And if you can’t fix this problem, you need to tell us so we can move into another property.
“That’s not something I really want to do, but at the same time, I can’t live like this any more.
"This is detrimental to my mental health. I just want to be able to use our toilet like anyone else – without ringing up, without tankers. And if they can't do that, we need to be moved to a suitable property.”
Southern Water has been contacted for comment.