Stream polluted after 'issue' at pumping station

A village stream was polluted with sewage after an "issue" at a nearby pumping station.

The waste entered a tributary of the River Tas in Stoke Holy Cross, near Norwich, close to the award-winning Stoke Mill restaurant.

The effluent flowed out of a manhole after a nearby Anglian Water facility malfunctioned.

The water company said its teams "responded promptly" and testing had confirmed that so far there had been no environmental impact to the Tas.

Tankers attempted to remove the sewage using pumps.

But Jim Webber, a Liberal Democrat member of South Norfolk Council, criticised the clean-up, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

He said sewage was still in the stream days later and he was worried it would eventually flow into the Tas.

"The state it has been left in is disgraceful. I thought it was all under control but it does not seem to be," he said.

A spokeswoman for Anglian Water said: "Our teams responded promptly to an issue at our pumping station earlier this week in the local area, which had caused a manhole to overflow.

"The pumps were reset and are now working, and as a precautionary measure, we have placed sandbags to prevent any flows heading into the River Tas and tankered the area to mitigate any impact to the local environment.

"We're currently investigating the situation to understand what caused the issue."

Monitors were installed at the manhole to alert engineers if levels rise in the sewer again.

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