Hoxton neighbours suffer seven weeks of sleepless nights after builders flood Long Street sewer with concrete
The Thames Water lorry which has been parked up outside Ashleigh's home in Long Street for seven weeks now - Credit: Ashleigh Irving
Neighbours of a Hoxton construction site have suffered seven weeks of sleepless nights with no end in sight, after builders flooded the sewage pipes with cement.
A Thames Water tanker has been parked 24 hours a day in Long Street right outside Ashleigh Irving’s front door, below her bedroom window, pumping sewage out of the blocked manhole since the accident happened.
It has been driving down the road every two hours to empty it into another manhole cover so properties don’t flood. Her two children are sitting their A-levels and GCSEs and are being prevented from studying or getting a good night’s sleep.
Piano teacher Ashleigh told the Gazette: “It’s like some kind of torture. You go to sleep in the quiet moment, and then you wake up when it all starts up again. The consequence is a severe lack of sleep with no real indication from anyone of when this is to end.
“I’ve never once had either the contractor responsible for the mess nor Thames Water contact me to explain or apologise. There are various billboards with ‘considerate builders’ plastered throughout the area – what a joke.”
There are currently three major construction projects taking place in Long Street, with two on either side of the road to the blocked drain.
Thames Water could not tell the Gazette who was responsible, or when the damage might be fixed. A spokesman said: “We’re currently investigating the blockage and how it was caused. If and when we find out who is responsible, we will be looking to reclaim costs but the investigation is still at a very early stage.”
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But the site manager for the Long and Waterson student digs project said: “It’s 1,000 per cent not us. We have no sewer running through our site. We just have electrical cables.”
Meanwhile Regal Homes initially claimed construction work “hadn’t reached the stage” that they might damage a sewer pipe on their Hackney Road Project site. But after the Gazette took a photo of the deep excavation from the top deck of a bus, a spokesman said: “Following the demolition process by a subcontractor on the site, an amount of concrete has worked its way into the sewer. We are currently investigating this so are not able to comment any further at this stage.”
