Angry residents have erected a ‘s**t show’ sign mocking a water company after their village was flooded with human waste, condoms and underwear.
Fed up villagers in Lambourn, Berkshire – where the Great British Bake Off is filmed – say they have been forced to wade through the filth after raw sewage began spewing out of manholes.
They say the grim issue started back in December when a drain began to overflow – and spilled out into other areas of the village.
Children have been walking through the stinking water to get to school, while passing cars churn up the filth, which has also been killing plants and wildlife.
Fears have also been raised about water contamination in the River Lambourn – the same chalk stream that features in The Great British Bake Off.
Fed up villagers in Lambourn, Berkshire, have erected a ‘s**t show’ sign mocking Thames Water after sewage began to churn up from drains
Children have been walking through the stinking water to get to school, while passing cars churn up the filth, which has also been killing plants and wildlife
The village sits within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is just downstream to where the Channel 4 cooking show is filmed.
Locals have spotted sanitary products, poo and even underwear bobbing around their village but Thames Water are yet to solve the issue.
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A mock road sign created by one cheeky local has been positioned along one road with the message ‘Lambourne s**t show’ written over it.
It is believed that high levels of groundwater have formed after one of the wettest years on record. The already saturated ground has led to increased water flow into local drainage systems.
One resident, who wished to remain unnamed, said: ‘We have had raw sewage running down the road and into the protected river Lambourn since December.
‘You can see human faeces and sanitary products flowing down the road and into the river constantly.
‘Large pot holes have formed in the road and Thames Water appear to have no motivation to find a solution.
‘The village requires major investment from those responsible for preventing and dealing with this but this will not happen due to the financial state of those companies and agencies.’
Another local added: ‘It’s not just raw sewage – I know it’s disgusting to even think about but there’s condoms and tampons in the road.
‘Our children have to wade through it all to get to school and the smell is abominable.
‘We shouldn’t have to live like this.’
Lambourn is the picture postcard setting for Channel 4’s Great British Bake-Off (Pictured: presenters Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond)
Fears have also been raised about water contamination in the River Lambourn – the same chalk stream that features in The Great British Bake Off
The Tory MP for Newbury previously accused Thames Water of putting ‘profits before people’.
Laura Farris wrote to the Environment Agency saying: ‘It is in the water and poisoning it, week after week.
‘Quite why nobody has taken the practical step to catch the effluent in some kind of device, after it leaves the manhole but before it reaches the water is beyond me.
‘The casual attitude to such a precious waterway is deplorable.’
Posting online, the Action for the River Kennet charity posted: ‘The pollution of the River Lambourn continues.
‘This is the same iconic chalk stream that features in the Great British Bake Off, is a site of Special Specific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.’
The group describes chalk streams as ‘rare, globally important and fragile ecosystems’, with only 260 in the world and 224 of them in England.
In another post, they added: ‘This morning’s footage shows the manhole lids in the village of Lambourn are still continuously pouring fountains of untreated sewage pollution in this fragile chalk stream.
‘Everything else flushed down the resident’s loos the comes up through the manhole, flows down the street into the storm drain which goes directly into the river.
‘In addition on the far bank you have sewage pollution coming from Thames Water’s’ Atac unit, this unit ‘screens’ the solids and pours into the river, it didn’t appear to be performing especially well today.
‘The situation is shocking and unacceptable, for our rivers and for people.
A Thames Water spokesperson said: ‘We’re sorry that customers have been affected as our sewers have become overloaded by floodwaters in the River Lambourn area. The excessively heavy rain that the region has experienced means the groundwater and river levels remain very high in this area and the ground is saturated.
‘A significant amount of this water is entering the local sewer system and causing flooding from manholes.
‘We are working hard to keep our sewers flowing and to prevent further flooding.
‘We’re carrying out daily clean-ups where the manholes have been overflowing in Lambourn and we’re using tankers at our sewage pumping station in Upper Lambourn 24 hours a day to help manage excess flows in the sewers.
‘We also have a filter unit in place near Lambourn fire station, which uses a pump to take the excess water out of our foul sewer, so it can be screened and then safely returned to the river.
‘We regularly monitor the water quality in the River Lambourn and the results have has shown a minimal impact on the environment because the flows are heavily diluted by the groundwater and surface water runoff. We regularly keep the Environment Agency updated on these results.
‘We’re continuing to work closely with the Lambourn Valley Flood Forum and we continue to investigate where groundwater and surface water is getting into the sewer system.
‘We’ve previously installed 10.1km of leak-tight liners in our sewers, and have sealed 122 manholes in the local sewer network.’