Sewage sufferer residents could get compensation - 10/04/2008

After having to suffer problems with sewage for years residents in St Ives could now be in line for compensation.

Locals living in St Audrey’s Lane have put up with their homes and gardens being regularly flooded with raw sewage and their toilets blocked, every time it rains heavily, for over ten years.

But now thanks to a new directive which came into force on April 1, the residents can apply for up to £1,000 of compensation from Anglian Water. The new law was highlighted in a meeting of the district council's Overview and Scrutiny Panel (OVS) on Tuesday (April 8), which has been looking into the problem for residents after a 26-signature petition was presented to them.

Cllr Jonathan Gray, chairman of the OVS, said: "The main message from us to residents is to be aware there is this new legislation.
"If we can get enough residents clued up on what's going on, Anglian Water could be paying out literally thousands of pounds a year to several residents."

The Water Supply and Sewage Service Regulation 2008 states that should sewage enter a building the service provider must pay the customer £1,000 or the sum of their sewage charges, whichever is lesser, each time it happens.

It also says that should sewage enter the land of a property the provider must pay the customer 50 per cent of their sewage rate or £500,
whichever is less, every time it happens.

It seems for the locals in St Ives anyway where there is muck there is brass after all.