RESIDENTS in Folly Hill have endured Thames Water tankers pumping sewage outside their front doors day-and-night over the Christmas period, following a major sewage leak in Farnham Park.

Human excrement and other detritus was seen gushing out of a manhole cover in Farnham Park on December 15, flooding public footpaths and polluting the Nadder stream which feeds into the River Wey.

Thames Water responded and discovered that a large section of the sewer serving much of north Farnham had collapsed, forcing it to disconnect the sewer and pump the waste manually into tankers since December 19.

This has involved regular HGV movements transporting the sewage between Hampton Road and into an alternative sewer in Gravel Road every half an hour, 24 hours a day, including on Christmas Day.

“It’s been a nightmare,” said David Havenhand, the chairman of the Friends of Farnham Park group who first reported the latest leak to Thames Water in mid-December.

“The exact same manhole cover split in February 2014, polluting the park. But this time it’s much more serious as the old clay sewer pipe has collapsed in more than one place and the amount of sewage that came out was considerably greater than four years ago.

“In fact it was running through the park, along the path and down into the Nadder stream. That is bad news because of course the Nadder feeds into the River Wey, which we know is polluted anyway.”

Mr Havenhand added pipes connecting the sewer to the tankers have also on occasion leaked sewage onto footpaths in the Folly Hill estate.

Waverley Borough Council was made aware of the incident on December 20 and has liaised with Thames Water and the Environment Agency to progress both a temporary and permanent solution.

As a result, work began on a temporary over-ground sewage pipe in Farnham Park on Tuesday, to bypass the collapsed sewer and take the waste through the woods to another manhole in the park.

Upper Hale councillor Julia Potts, who has also liaised with residents throughout the incident, added this will require cutting a path through a public footpath which will be reinstated following the works.

Waverley officers were also set to meet with Thames Water to discuss the permanent replacement of the broken section of clay pipe with a modern, possibly concrete alternative.

There is not yet a timescale for the major replacement works, although Thames Water workers have reportedly told residents this would be expected to take around a month to complete.

Thames Water will also, says Miss Potts, be looking at the next pipe sections which have also become badly clogged with roots to see if this can be relined or will need a full replacement also.

It comes almost exactly four years after persistent rain overwhelmed the same section of sewer, splitting a manhole cover in Farnham Park and again flooding the Nadder stream, a tributary of the River Wey, with sewage.

According to The Friends of Farnham Park, sewage has regularly leaked into Farnham Park and the stream since the mid-1970s, following construction of the Sandy Nook estate and subsequent development in north Farnham.

However, apart from a short 100-yard stretch of the sewer between the park and Hampton Road, Thames Water is yet to overhaul the area’s outdated and overwhelmed sewer network, as residents deem necessary.

Mr Havenhand added: “It is a shame Thames Water did not do what they say they are going to do now four years ago.

“But to give the Thames Water guys their due, they’ve worked very hard and they’ve been very helpful, very co-operative and I can’t criticise them at all.

“We’ve been very pleased and in fact on Christmas morning I took them half a dozen cans of beer and some mince pies because I felt so sorry for them.”

Thames Water, which is responsible for both fresh and waste water in Farnham, has since apologised for the disruption caused to Folly Hill residents over Christmas.

A spokesman said: “We’re sorry for the disruption to customers living in and around Hampton Road.

“A section of our sewer pipe has collapsed, and to protect nearby properties and the environment from flooding we need to use tankers to help manage wastewater flows.

“We’re working to gain access to the section of our pipe that needs repairing, so we can return the network to normal as soon as possible.”

The spokesman added Thames Water looked at alternative sites for the location of its tankers, “but given the layout of our sewer network the current location [Hampton Road] is the only option”.