Neighbours kick up a stink over sewage pipe
Neighbours in Deppers Bridge claim heavy vehicles used by Network Rail contractors have damaged the road and crushed a sewage pipe from their homes. Picture submitted.
OWNERS of cottages in Bishop’s Itchington have accused the company that runs the nation’s railway lines of ignoring damage to their property.
Neighbours at Depper’s Bridge claim contractors working for Network Rail have a sewage pipe that has left effluent running onto their gardens and polluted a nearby brook, but the firm has disputed this.
Resident Paul Sykes claims Hydrex Haulage has used heavy vehicles on the bridge, which has a 7.5 tonne limit, damaging the road surface and a pipe beneath.
The ensuing blockage has broken one pump, and means residents in the cottages must pay to have their cesspit emptied manually.
He said: “Where they have caused physical damage it is their responsibility to have it repaired.
“We can’t believe Network Rail don’t want to take ownership of this. They seem quite happy to sit back and let us pursue it through the court.”
Among the costs to householders have been £8,000 for a new pump and surveyor’s fees, as well as a land registry search.
Mr Sykes believes Network Rail should reimburse these, repair and strengthen the pipe and a carry out a full structural survey of the bridge, which is on the main line to London from Birmingham Moor Street.
He says the firm has refused to carry out assesment work to clarify what damage has been caused and is trying to pass responsibility to water company Severn Trent, even though the water company will not take ownership of the pipe until 2016.
A Network Rail spokesman said the damage was first reported months before the allegation against Hydrex Haulage, which had been reminded of the need to observe the weight limit.
But he said others also used the bridge, citing recent photographs of a vehicle apparently carrying a combine harvester using it, and tyre marks showing other large vehicles used the road.
He added that Network Rail did not own the pipe, and only one occupier of the four cottages had a licence with Network Rail to use it, and that Severn Trent had indicated it had taken over responsibility for the pipe but not what arrangements it had with the cottage owners.
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Weather for Leamington
Tuesday 22 May 2012
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