Andrew Griffith met with members of the Sayers Common Village Society, Parish Council, residents and representatives from Southern Water, to hear frustrations with the lack of an adequate rain wastewater system in their village due to past over development. This has resulted in many homes suffering from regular flooding after heavy rain and residents’ sinks and toilets unable to be emptied for days due to water backing up.
At a well-attended meeting held in Sayers Common, Andrew heard how for years the village has been “plagued by a totally insufficient drainage system”. As a result, untreated sewage often spills onto local roads, and homes are unable to drain their waste until tankers arrive to remove the build-up.
The small pumping station in the Village was built thirty years ago and simply cannot cope. Since then, Sayers Common has grown considerably with far more connections to the sewerage system.
There are concerns that further proposed development in the village will only aggravate the situation.
Southern Water sent a stakeholder engagement manager and engineer to the meeting to hear first-hand the accounts of what residents are dealing with in their own homes on a regular basis.
Andrew Griffith said:
“Sayers Common is a textbook example of what is wrong with the old planning system. Sites that should never have been built on due to a history of groundwater flooding, insufficient weight given to neighbourhood plans and a failure to put drainage infrastructure in ahead of any new homes being built.
“Stopping unsustainable development is my number one priority and each of these issues are being addressed in the planning reforms currently going through Parliament.
“What Sayers Common residents need – and need urgently – is a complete moratorium on any new development until Southern Water have done a literally “drains up” review, rebuild and upgrade of drainage in the village.”
