Raw sewage pours onto children's play park in Rugeley

Raw sewage has been leaking onto the grass near to the children's play park on the junction of Green Lane and Arden Close in Rugeley.

People living nearby have described the smell as 'totally vile' and have raised concerns that children are going to fall ill because of it.

Yesterday, the sewage, next to the play park, had dried up but the smell was still prominent. Severn Trent Water said the problem was called by a blockage and urged people to take care with what they were flushing down toilets.

Sharon Kelly-Kenyon, aged 49, has lived near the park for two years now and posted this image on Facebook. She said: "I live just around the corner. It is a place that I like to take my granddaughter nearly every day in the holidays but obviously it's not been safe or clean. It has happened three times in the last month or so but this time is the worst.

"It is vile, totally vile. The smell is appalling, it makes me feel sick. On Wednesday there were some kids playing football and they kicked the ball into it. The smell really is not pleasant.

"What is it going to take for a child to become really ill? It is dangerous and that's without thinking about the animals that will run through it, especially dogs."

A couple who live opposite the park, but who wished to remain anonymous, added: "It is horrendous."

Megan Mccomsikie, who lives over the road from her park with her partner and baby daughter, said: "I was going to take my daughter round there but the smell has ruined it. It is more of a worry for the children that are walking and running around.

"If she walked into it I would obviously have not been happy. I know there were some children who kicked a football into it the other day. If the windows were open you could smell it so I had to shut all the windows. I do not think the hot weather is helping and is probably making the smell worse."

Brian Summerfield, aged 71, has lived on Hawthorn Way opposite the park since 1968 – some 48 years. He admitted that the problem was not so bad for him as he could not smell it, but accepted it was 'not very nice'.

He said: "It is only when you go over that that you smell it. I do not think it has been there that long, a couple of days at most. It was only when I took my my grandsons over that you could smell it and then there was another women in there who said it was sewage.

"It is a play park and I take my both grandkids there, and before that my two sons used to play in there.

"These things do happen. Looking across from my kitchen I could see what looked like water and then standing mowing the front lawn I could not smell anything. But, at the same time, it really is not very nice."

Residents have also been venting their anger on Facebook. Emma Louise Murdoch posted: "It has happened a few times now and the smell is absolutely vile. We can smell it from the next street.

"It is awful and it is only a matter of time before someone becomes ill. The smell is making me feel sick, my kids wanted to go to the park earlier but I said no because it is so bad."

A spokesperson for Severn Trent said: "We received reports of sewer flooding in a field near to Arden Close, Rugeley and we went straight out to investigate. We used CCTV equipment to look down into the sewer and found that the blockage in the pipe had been caused by a build-up of sanitary products.

This happens when people flush them down the toilet instead of disposing of them in the bin. We worked hard to clear the blockage and clean up the affected area.

"We can't stress enough how important it is to only flush toilet paper down the toilet. Anything else should go into the bin. The drains that take waste water away from homes are only a few inches wide and are only meant to take water, toilet roll and human waste. Toilet roll is designed to break down when it gets wet so it washes easily through the system.

That's not the case with things like nappies, wipes and other sanitary products, which can get stuck in smaller drains.

"These sewer blockages lead to sewers backing up and overflowing into people's homes and gardens, like what has happened in the field near to Arden Close.

This is not something we want any of our customers to ever experience and we'd like to apologise to those local residents who have been affected."