SOUTHERN Water says it is "extremely sorry" for a sewage pipe bursting for the fifth time.

The pipe, in Orient Road, Lancing, burst this afternoon and residents say the “dreadful” smelling sewage has leaked onto the street.

Nigel Sweet, 63, who lives in The Broadway near the crossroads with Orient Road, claims Southern Water are showing “no urgency” for the situation.

Southern Water has repaired the pipe several times since it first burst in October, but the leaks have continued and people in the area are worried about their houses being flooded.

The company have now responded to the incident and said they will be taking action to fix the problem

A spokesman for Southern Water said: "We are working on a burst wastewater main running under West Way in Lancing and are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this is causing both local residents and road users in the area.

"We fully understand the frustration this is causing people, as this same length of pipe has been the subject of ongoing issues in the past couple of months.

"Recent work has been undertaken to line parts of the main to try and prevent future bursts, but we will revisit this work as a matter of priority to evaluate what more can be done.

"Tankers will be operating in the area to support the repair so that customers can continue to use their kitchens and bathrooms as normal, and therefore it is possible some traffic management will be required once again on the A259 to allow them to operate safely.

"We are sending customer liaison officers to the area to support those affected, and wish to assure them that we will be working as hard as possible to make a repair and be away from the area as quickly as we can."

Nigel told The Argus: “It’s not just the fact these leaks are happening, it’s the fact we’re in this constant fear at any point of another sewage inundation coming.

“Any time it happens we have to move our cars out the way because the sewage gets plastered everywhere. We have to wash the cars down, the road gets washed down."

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