Thames Water: Man's plea to neighbours after poo streams into garden SIX times

Shaun Herbert, from Windrush, Highworth, has faced ongoing issues with a drain in his garden that isn't even connected to his property overflowing and sending a cascade of human waste toward his home.

He first spotted human excrement and nappies coming spewing from a drain in his back garden on September 2, 2021, and reported it to Thames Water who are responsible for the management of the drain. 

However, the issue wasn't resolved for at least a month with the unwanted fluid continuing to stream into his garden until Thames Water found the cause to be a blockage resulting from sewer misuse. 

Read: Disgust as raw sewage spews from drain into Highworth homeowner's garden

Months later, Shaun says that the issue is still ongoing with the drain overflowing into his garden six times since the initial issue from last year, with the last two occasions, both in July during the hot weather, proving to be particularly unpleasant. 

Shaun's garden filling up with excrement

"After they cleared the blockage in September, everything was alright until January when it happened again.

"They CCTV'd the drain and gave it a deep clean at the end of June but by July it was blocked and overflowing again.

"They came out and cleared it as best as they could but it was horrific in that heat and there were still deposits in the grass.

"The smell was unbearable and there were lots of flies. I went out with the hosepipe and got another half a bin bag of sewage out of the grass."

Shaun says that despite initial communication problems between him and the water company, it is actively trying to resolve the problem.

But he added that it has refused to block the cover completely, which would fix the problem for him, and has told him he does not qualify for compensation. 

"It’s got to the point where it’s on your mind all of the time.

"The first thing I do every day is look and see if the garden is full of waste again."

The offending drain

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “Mr Herbert’s garden has been repeatedly flooded because of blockages in the local sewer network which have been caused by a horrible mix of fats, oils and greases and mounds of wet wipes.

“Sewer flooding in people’s homes and gardens can be devasting which is why it’s so important everyone helps keep sewers unblocked by only flushing the three P’s – pee, poo and paper – and putting everything else in the bin.

“To help prevent this from happening again we’re continuing to deliver “Bin it - don’t block it” leaflets to local residents to remind them of the need to bin wet wipes.

"We’ve conducted sewer cleaning and we’re also installing a sewer monitor in Mr Herbert’s garden and will be completing regular visual checks on the sewer, to clear any further blockages.”