Roadworks underway as Anglian Water work to repair collapsed sewer in Peterborough

The issues have stemmed from the sewer network located at Eye Road, which has impacted the network further downstream.

Anglian Water has estimated that customers in areas such as Werrington, Gunthorpe, Paston, Dogsthorpe and Parnwell are all affected.

Large tankers are on site in those areas to allow customers to continue to flush toilets and to drain baths and washing machines with no issues.

Current works include a lane closure on Parnwell Way, a road closure on Fulbridge Road south of Skaters Way, and closure of bus stop turning area on Belvoir Way opposite Langton Road.

There will also be an inner ring lane closure on Eye Roundabout / Frank Perkins Parkway J8 between 8pm and 6am starting Thursday evening (September 25). There will also be associated closures of the right-hand lanes on approach to the roundabout.

Affected residents have complained of raw sewage overflowing into their gardens as well as foul smells and burst pipes.

Cllr Alex Rafiq of Paston and Walton ward has said that he has been contacted by large numbers of residents regarding concerns about concerns about large numbers of industrial vehicles in the area. Cllr Rafiq has requested adequate signage be put up to warn residents that of the increased presence of the heavy vehicles.

A joint meeting was also held between Paston and Gunthorpe residents regarding concerns about overflowing sewers in the area causing bad smells, going back several months.

Cllr Rafiq added: “I’m really concerned about the government’s ambitious house building targets for Peterborough but incidents like this raise the question if we have the infrastructure to meet this demand.”

A spokesperson for Anglian Water said: “We’re working on Eye Road in Peterborough to clear a restriction in the sewer near the roundabout which has also had further impact on the sewer downstream.

"As you can imagine, this is quite a complicated engineering job, so in the meantime we’re using tankers and pumps to move wastewater out of the sewer and take it to our water recycling centre in Fengate to be fully treated.

"This is essential to keep your toilets flushing and protect the environment, but we know tankers are big and noisy, so we’re sorry for any disruption they cause while we work. We’ve asked all our drivers to keep their speed to a minimum while they travel through residential areas.

“We’re using some specialist jetting equipment on Parnwell Way (on the approach to the roundabout). To do this safely we'll need to close one of the lanes. We're sorry for any inconvenience we cause drivers in the area while we do this important work. We've also had to put a road closure in place on Fulbridge Road in Werrington so we can use our tankers safely.

“We’d like to thank our customers in Peterborough for bearing with us while we get things back to normal.”