Calls to sort sewage before housebuilding

Clyst St Mary and Cranbrook affected

A councillor is calling for development in part of East Devon to stop until the area’s sewage overrun system is sorted out.

Councillor Mike Howe (Conservative, Clyst Valley) says the sewage system in part his ward, Clyst St Mary, has been flooded with sewage 11 times since the start of this year alone, with some residents being left unable to use their toilets for more than 60 hours at a time.

The East Devon District councillor (EDDC) wants all development in the West End of East Devon, which includes Cranbrook, to be halted until South West Water sorts out its sewage problems.

Speaking at an EDDC strategic planning meeting Cllr Howe said: “I cannot support us even going into discussions with developers when there’s no known solutions or possibility of solutions that are readily available to solve the issues of sewage in this area.

“We do need to be extremely careful about what we’re doing to residents who are suffering these sewage problems and not make them any further worse than they already are.”

He also asked for a planned extension to Cranbrook to be scrapped until South West Water finds a fully costed solution to cope with the sewage it already has.

South West Water is one of several water companies criticised for dumping raw sewage into waterways. The company carried out 42,000 raw sewage discharges in 2020 alone.

Cllr Howe later met with executives of South West Water, alongside East Devon’s Conservative MP Simon Jupp. He says it was a productive conversation and he believes the directors of the company are trying their best – but he has not changed his opinion. The company has promised to provide monthly updates on sewage problems in the area.

Around three-quarters of new development planned for East Devon is in the West End area. If development stopped, EDDC could lose its five-year land supply and therefore the control it has over planning applications.

If this were to happen developers would still be able to build properties and add to the sewage problems facing Clyst Valley – just without any input from the council.

Responding to Cllr Howe’s calls, Councillor Dan Ledger (Democratic Alliance Group, Seaton), portfolio holder for strategic development, said: “We are acutely aware of the issues with sewerage across the Clyst Valley.

“We hope for a speedy resolution to this situation and will continue to press the company for firm, transparent and accountable longer-term plans to be put in place to ensure that these problems never occur again.” 

Cllr Ledger said senior members of the council as well as Councillor Howe and MP Simon Jupp were pressing South West Water “to find solutions for those affected by these unacceptable conditions.”

Matt Crabtree, engineering director, at South West Water said: “We would like to apologise to customers in Clyst St Mary who have been impacted by drainage issues.

“We are continuing to investigate the cause of the issue and have been making a number of improvements to the sewer network and to the Clyst Honiton pumping station, as well as adding and moving monitors to help trace the root causes.

 “We are committed to delivering a permanent solution which will involve detailed works and upgrades to our network. These repairs will be extensive and will cause disruption to the area and because of this, we want to be absolutely sure that we have traced the cause to deliver the right permanent solution for the community.”