Fountain of faeces flows down Sidcup street for 36 hours

As a result of the storms and flash floods across the southeast, two manholes in Woodside Road poured out human waste and toilet paper onto the pavement and street.

Bubbling sewage spewed on to the street

Stan Codling, 69, lives on the street and was appalled by the length of time it took for authorities to respond to the dirty crisis.

He said: “To be honest, it was absolutely disgusting.

“There was a fountain in the middle of the road.

“The road is used by children and their parents to get to Longlands primary school - it really was a health hazard, not only to walk on the pavements but also to avoid getting splashed by cars using the road.

“It was awful.

“Someone, somewhere is at fault.”

However, Mr Codlin has praised the expertise and stoicism of the two workers who arrived on site and solved the brown dilemma as soon as they could.

Residents were shocked by the 36 hour waiting time by Thames Water

Their presence was so welcomed by residents that an outpouring of tea and biscuits was made readily available for the duo who stopped the spill.

Mr Codling said: “The people on the ground were amazing.

“Even they were shocked at the state of the road.

“They did their job superbly but unfortunately they were not called to do it earlier.”

News Shopper has discovered that the faeces overflow was a result of a collapsed sewer in Main Road hit by flash floods.

A spokeswoman for Thames Water said: “Our teams were out over the weekend cleaning up the Woodside Road area after last week’s very heavy rain led to our sewers being overwhelmed.

"We’re sorry to anyone affected, especially any schoolchildren who had an unpleasant journey home that afternoon, and have fully disinfected areas that have been in contact with any wastewater."

The council has confirmed that more pumping is currently taking place with a silent pump in use to prevent further flooding issues and to minimise disruption to residents.