Councillor’s hope for a sewage-free park

At the District Council meeting of 27 February, Cllr Hugh Ashton (LD, Stowe) submitted a written question to Cllr Andy Smith, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Parks & Major Projects, asking “''Beacon Park has been flooded with raw sewage far too many times in the past few months. Given that the sewage system in the region of Beacon Park is clearly unfit for purpose, and represents a public health hazard, what steps are being taken by the Council to ensure that Severn Trent Water fulfil their obligations to manage wastewater and sewage in a timely and responsible manner?”

Cllr Smith’s response was that: “Severn Trent have attended as an emergency call out and carried out clean up works and investigations. In April 2023 the cause was due to tree roots in the Garden of Remembrance, owned by Lichfield City Council, damaging the pipework. This was fixed and cleared at the time. The most likely cause of the January & February 2024 incidents have been determined to be ongoing blockages in the Garden of Remembrance. Clean up works have been completed and Severn Trent are now working directly with Lichfield City Council to further investigate the underlying cause within the Garden of Remembrance.”

As a supplementary question, Cllr Ashton enquired about Severn Trent providing diagnosis and a permanent solution to this problem, which might well re-occur, to which Cllr Smith answered that the current works carried out in the Garden of Remembrance should prevent a recurrence of the issue.

However, Cllr Ashton feels that more might be done, given the likely age and state of other drainage systems in the city. “Though I submitted my question to Cllr Smith before the current crisis, rather than as a response to it, the fact that the problem occurred immediately after my question indicates that either I have superpowers controlling Severn Trent operations, or that the underlying issue has been so serious that it represented a risk that could be realised at any time.

“I do not believe the first, and though I am happy to see the work currently being carried out, and Captain Smith is no doubt to be relieved to be steering the Titanic through cleaner waters, I fear that unless a city-wide assessment of the state of the drainage system with subsequent repairs is carried out, we will see a repeat performance elsewhere.”