Brambridge: Flooding and sewage flows into River Itchen again

Kiln Lane, by Brambridge Garden Centre, once again flooded on Saturday, January 14 with water containing sewage spewing from a lifted manhole and into the River Itchen.

Flooding started in the morning following heavy rainfall. Southern Water started work on Saturday night, with five tankers being used to remove the excess water and sewage via the nearby pumping station.

Work is expected to continue for up to two days. The garden centre remains open and is accessible from Highbridge Road, with closures in place across the bridge.

Winchester city councillor, Sue Cook, was at the site throughout Saturday until midnight and called the police, Hampshire Highways and Southern Water a number of times to get the road closed as she deemed it “unsafe”.

READ MORE: Brambridge: sewage flows into iconic Hampshire chalk stream

Drivers were advised by Colden Common Parish Council at about 5pm on Saturday, January 14 to “proceed with caution” while pedestrians were told to “be aware that the water contains sewage”.

Residents were later updated by the parish council of the road closure shortly after 9pm.

Cllr Cook said: “A lot of pressure had to be put on various authorities to get this sorted. I watched so many near misses before the road was eventually closed. I'm disappointed that Hampshire Highways and the police weren't more proactive.

"I saw so many near misses of people nearly hitting the manhole which is about six inches thick. Cyclists could have come down too. Hundreds of cars use this road and they kept it open.

"To see all that water going into the Itchen is just so sad. It's horrible what you see, the colour of the water is not pleasant, it's all brown and sludgy.

“I can’t credit the supervisor in charge of the operation enough. There's no odour but toilet paper is being hoiked out by the workers.

"This shouldn't have had to get to this point and it's not going to stop here."

Cllr Cook said that water reached as high as 25 inches to one metre. Levels are under control now but water is still spilling out due to the 45-minute turnaround of lorries transporting the water away.

SEE ALSO: Flood warnings being issued in Hampshire

One of the supervisors from the garden centre said that business has been unaffected. He said: “They’re cleaning up as we speak. The staff are all here as they should be and customers are coming so it’s business as usual. Our customers managed to drive through the water yesterday and didn’t say they had any trouble."

The flooding follows previous reports of sewage flowing into the Hampshire chalk stream after a resident, from Alresford, described a “smelly leak” and branded the incident an “environmental disaster”.

In response, the garden centre supervisor said: “I haven’t noticed any sewage or bad smells myself but I haven’t been down to investigate.”

A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “We are aware of flooding from a manhole in Kiln Lane, Brambridge, and are sorry for the upset and inconvenience caused to residents.

“Over the weekend, we had to close Kiln Lane because of the issue reoccurring due to heavy rain. We are mitigating any environmental impact with tankers and will look to reopen the road as soon as possible.”

“Our enquiries have uncovered issues with the sewer network in this area, and we have already carried out a number of improvements and investigations in an effort to solve the problems.

“Although these have helped, these have unfortunately not yet resolved the matter, which is why we are in the process of delivering a scheme to allow a greater volume of flow during wet weather which will help reduce flooding and pollution events.

“This work was recently temporarily paused due to the discovery of power cables and it will resume this week. We would like to thank the community for their patience during this time.”

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “Our investigation into a number of discharges from sewer overflows at Brambridge over Christmas continues. This includes assessing whether they adversely affected the Itchen.

“The discharges are caused by water run-off from the land getting into the drainage system and then released into the river.”

A spokesperson for Hampshire County Council said: “Our Highways team were called out to Kiln Lane over the weekend, although they quickly ascertained that the problem was due to a sewer, managed by Southern Water.

“On arrival at the site, our engineers confirmed that appropriate steps were being taken by Southern Water to temporarily close the road to make the area safe. We will be continuing to liaise with Southern Water to monitor the progress of the work.”