A Lewisham resident has slammed the council after being left with sewage flooding her bathroom out of the toilet for almost one week.

Bethan, 25, says she has been unable to go to work or stay in her own flat as she has battled to get help from the council since the issue began on Thursday (March 7).

She told the News Shopper that “Lewisham Council has been nothing short of negligent and have had a shocking lack of empathy and accountability" for her situation.

When the sewage began flooding her flat, Bethan contacted her landlord who sent someone out.

News Shopper:

But, since the cause was found to be an issue with the stack pipe, which is in the communal part of the building, her landlord could not fix it as this falls under council jurisdiction.

Bethan claims she spent the next six days trying to get hold of someone to come and make the repair.

It was not until yesterday afternoon (Tuesday, March 12) that she claims the council sent someone to fix the blockage.

While this has stopped more sewage from emerging, the pipe and Bethan’s bathroom has not been deep-cleaned, leaving her with rags all over the floor covered in sewage, a leak and a stench.

Bethan added: “I think in general the main thing that was shocking was that it took almost a week for someone to sort it out.

“Just as an example, I sent an email to my MP and my local councillors in the Lewisham earlier.

“I have just had someone knock on the door in a Lewisham lanyard, I’m not sure where he came froma as he didn’t introduce himself or anything.”

She explained that this felt like a courtesy call from someone asking “if her water was fixed”.

When she said it was, she claims this person then went on to tell her that the email she sent was “confusing” and headed off.

Bethan claims that she then told them that the council’s service has been “awful”, and he did not apologise of offer any help before leaving.

Bethan says one of her main issues is that there is no emergency contact she could find for the council during the daytime.

Instead she was faced with either being on hold for hours, having her call declined due to a “skeleton staff” being in place or speaking to someone on the out of hours emergency line after 5pm.

This meant that plumbers were being sent in the early hours of the morning to give the problem a quick fix until someone could come and tackle it properly.

News Shopper: Sewage spills out of Lewisham toilet into flat's only bathroom 'for nearly a week' Sewage spills out of Lewisham toilet into flat's only bathroom 'for nearly a week' (Image: Bethan)

But, Bethan claims that each time someone was sent out, the problem was marked as fixed in the council system, putting her back at the beginning.

Bethan and her flatmate have both had to take time off work to spend time cleaning the sewage as it flooded her bathroom as well as to wait at the property for plumbers to come and help.

Bethan also said that they have not been able to live at the property as it is unsafe and the bathroom is unusable, and she claims she was having to use the toilet in the local McDonald’s - but this closes at 11pm.

She added: “Luckily, my grandma lives about half an hour away and she has said I can stay at hers temporarily.

“So, I’m kind of between her house and my flat because I have to be here to let people in still.

“You know what, I’m really lucky that my work has been really flexible with it.

@bethanfahy99 Tiktok please do your thing 😭 we are so worried about our health and safety #lewishamcouncil #flood #viral #fyp ♬ original sound - Beth

“But, that’s not really the point.

“I’m lucky, but it could have been anyone that had to deal with this and could have lost a lot of money from this.”

While there is light at the end of the tunnel for Bethan and her flatmate now, she says she does not want this to happen to someone else.

Bethan also added that she does not want to have to resort to using the fire brigade’s time to fix something that is the council’s responsibility and urges them to have an emergency line open during the day.

A Lewisham Council spokesperson said: “We are happy to say the repair has now been completed, and our repairs supervisor has confirmed this with the resident present.

"We are raising the issue with our out-of-hours service who in this case appear to have wrongly flagged the repairs as complete.

"Our average queue times for our repairs call centre are improving but we acknowledge that too often residents face long waiting times, and we are continuing our work to improve this.”