‘River of raw sewage’ forces people in new block of flats to flee their homes

A river of ‘poo’ with ‘puddles of excrement’ is running through the gardens and homes of a block of flats in Devon.

Residents of Rainbow View, a converted former council building in Totnes, say they have fled their new flats after ‘poo started coming out of the shower’.

Tenants at the converted former council building are blaming shoddy construction work by builders for their ‘horrendous’ living conditions.

Videos of the ongoing issue show brown ‘slurry’ and water flowing out of drains near the building, and onto a road that children often play on.

Nikki Clargo, 37, says that the building’s 20 flats have had ‘dozens’ of issues since she bought the flat 18-months-ago.

She is also now facing showers of sewage when she flushes her toilet which end up on her bathroom floor.

Nikki only realised the issue was impacting everyone in the building after she got fed up with the slow response from building management and complained to neighbours.

After complaints to building managers Apex Property Management fell on deaf ears, she said she had to move out of the flat.

She said she was told she would have to pay for the sewage to be cleaned up herself.

However, the company finally gave in yesterday and paid to clean her shower.

However, real estate company Totnes Property 1, which is handling the residents complaints and behalf of the original constructors, blamed the issues on residents flushing inappropriate material down the toilets.

They say that ‘immediate steps’ are being taken to address the drainage issue.

Nikki, an oceanographer, said: ‘It’s been horrendous to be honest, it’s been in the garden a few times as well – this is not the first time it has happened.

‘At first I didn’t realise what it was, it’s like a slurry, but I can even see toilet paper on my patio now – so it’s obvious what it is.

‘Pools of sewage even flow out of manhole covers outside the building and fill our driveway.

‘I think the management relied on the fact that the residents were not talking to one another, there’s no real communal area so we were all complaining individually.

‘The worst part is I’ve hardly had the worst experience. People in the building have had ceilings cave in, a guy had no working toilet for three months.

‘One 82-year-old lady upstairs couldn’t use her shower for two weeks.

‘It was only when the poo started coming out of my shower that I decided to talk to the others to warn them – only then did I realise that everyone had problems being ignored.

‘It’s now been running into a storm drain and into the River Dart, but I’m just staggered by the lack of response to literal s**t running in the streets though.’

Cllr Jonathan Hawkins, South Hams District Council’s Executive Member for Environmental Health, said: ‘Our officer visited the site this afternoon following a call from a concerned resident about the sewage coming from a manhole.

‘At the time of the visit, the sewage that had leaked over the property was being cleaned up by a contractor.

‘The council works with housing agents and landlords to secure improvements to properties where necessary.

‘We have spoken to the resident today to ask for some further information regarding their property.’

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