Letter: The stink is back in the city centre

I know this is a regular situation every year as soon as the weather warms up but it reminded me of a conversation I had last year with a tourist from Seattle.

My wife and I were at Windermere Railway station waiting for a train and got into conversation with another couple who were also waiting. They asked where we were from and I replied Peterborough.

The lady from Seattle said that she and her husband had been in Peterborough the week before. They were staying in Cambridge and had come to Peterborough to go to Flag Fen, which she said was really interesting and to see our cathedral which she described as absolutely beautiful. I replied that I was really pleased they had both enjoyed there visit to Peterborough.

The lady from Seattle then said, there was only one drawback to their visit. On the day they visited Peterborough must have had a problem with one of their drains because in the city itself there was a strong smell of sewage.

I replied, that how unlucky she was to visit us on the one day the drains happened to be having some kind of problem.

I obviously didn't want to tell her that every summer for decades, there has always been a strong smell of sewage near the city centre.

In fact, because the sewage smell problem has been going on for so many years I've completely forgotten the reason why the council has found it impossible to fix the issue.

Paul Kaz Peterborough