MP Says Thames Water Have ‘Done Nothing’ Despite Residents Reporting Sewage Spill

Published on: 10 Jan, 2025
Updated on: 10 Jan, 2025

Chris Coghlan Dorking and Horley MP points out a broken manhole on the River Mole

By Chris Caulfield

local democracy reporter

Raw sewage has spewed out of a broken manhole cover and into the River Mole.

Chris Coghlan MP

Video taken by the Liberal Democrat MP for Dorking and Horley, Chris Coghlan, shows the waste pumping out of the ground, just yards from the River Thames tributary in Brockham.

He had been alerted by residents who said they were fed up after repeatedly trying to get Thames Water to fix the problem.

The utility firm has apologised to those affected and said they would also clean up the surrounding areas.

Posting a video on social media, Mr Coghlan said: “ So it’s happy new year, happy new sewage spill from Thames Water.

“I’m here outside a broken manhole cover here in Brockham and you can see it’s literally busting sewage out of it, spraying it everywhere.

“And behind me you can see loo paper, what looks like condoms

“I’ve been speaking to some of my constituents here, this has been going on for years.

“They have been reporting it to Thames Water and they’ve done nothing and if you look behind me down here, this is the River Mole. It’s going straight into the River Mole.

“We’re a little upstream from the stepping stones where many people would love to bring their kids to paddle but they just can’t because this sewage is being dumped into the river and dumping E Coli everywhere.

“So I am very upset about this, I will be writing to Thames Water and the Environment Agency. It is a completely illegal sewage dump and I want it fixed.”

Thames Water publishes an up-to-date map showing near real-time storm discharge activity, as indicated by its monitors.

At the time of reporting, there were active discharges in Chertsey feeding into the River Bourne meaning “there could be sewage in that section of the watercourse’, as well as at Leatherhead into the River Mole, at Holmwood Holmwood into Holmwood Stream, at Cranleigh into Cranleigh Waters, and at Ockley Road feeding into Cobbler’s Brook.

In London, Thames Water has issued an update after E Coli was found in an area of South East London with people in Brockley advised to boil their water before using it.

A Thames Water spokesperson said of the Brockham leak: “We responded to reports of external sewer flooding near Hillside Close in Brockham on Monday, January 6.

“When our engineers attended the water had receded, however, we will carry out further investigations to understand why the flooding occurred.

“During this time we will also clean up the surrounding areas and we are sorry to those who have been impacted.”