Southern Water hold meeting in Shoreham over Lancing pipe works

That was the question on a lot of people’s lips as they quizzed Southern Water over the progress of works to fix a network of old leaky pipes.

The water company has been trying to modernise the old network of pipes in the West Way area of Lancing since a burst in August-one of eight since October 2021.

The work has meant draining the network and using several tankers on the A259 Brighton Road to collect sewage from people’s homes while workers fit a plastic polymer lining inside the pipes.

The lorries and temporary traffic lights on the road have caused massive delays of more than 30 minutes at rush hour most days.

• Read more: 'Deja vu' for street as pipe bursts again causing a 'fountain of sewage'

At a meeting on Monday night at the Ropetackle Arts Centre in Shoreham, Tony Knott, senior project manager for Southern Water, said the company aims to have the sewers lined and in use by Christmas, which will also mean the removal of all the tankers and traffic management.

Southern Water was originally hoping to have the relining done by October 24.

The work could be completed sooner if a structural report on one of the 14 pits and land access permits are obtained quicker.

However, contractors will need to return after the New Year to begin the reinstatement of the road, as well as repairs to damaged pavements caused by the tankers.

An exact date for the reinstatement and repairs, or an expected time scale, could not be given.

Mr Knott said a number of “unforeseen” circumstances had put the works behind schedule and admitted the last four days had been “dreadful” due to the bad weather.

“It’s not been a good week for progress,” he said.

Queues at the temporary traffic lights in Lancing (Image: Sussex News and Pictures)

Residents pushed for the company to complete a full repair to the entire road, which Southern Water’s chief customer officer Katy Taylor said would not be possible due to the millions of pounds it would cost to complete and the likely length of time the works would go on for.

“We never said we were going to do the whole road, we wanted to, that was our aspiration but the concrete alone, let alone everything else that goes with it, would be over a million pounds,” she said.

“We physically can’t replace the entire road it would take a year and a half.”

Ms Taylor said there would be compensation for affected residents.

“Everyone who is directly affected on the estate has already had their wastewater charges reduced for the last year.

“What we’re going to do for this year, we’ll do a graded system whereby those who are directly affected by the tankers and digging and everything outside their houses will have their wastewater charges refunded in full.

“And those on the subsidiary roads will have it refunded, not in full, but by 50 per cent.”

Read more: Temporary traffic lights on A259 to remain as water company fixes old leaky pipes

She also said there would be a £30,000 donation to the community after the works are completed.

Residents branded the company’s offer as “paltry”.

Residents at the meeting with Southern Water on Monday (Image: Sussex News and Pictures)

One resident said: “£30,000 is paltry considering the sum Southern Water makes.”

Councillor Catherine Arnold, Adur and Worthing Council’s member for Shoreham’s St Mary’s ward, also asked where the money for this donation would come from and urged Southern Water to be “transparent”.

“We only have two sources of money, customers’ bills and funds that come in from Macquarie [Macquarie Asset Management which acquired a majority stake in Southern Water last year],” said Ms Taylor.

“They don’t necessarily come in and are allocated to specific things.

“We haven’t paid any dividends since 2017 to any of our investors in Macquarie.

“Any profit that we have made has been reinvested into the business.”

Complaints were also made over the noise and attitudes of some of the contractors, to which Perry Yendell of MTS Contracting Ltd, told residents to get in touch with him with any problems regarding staff.

One woman said she had had to send her son to stay at his father’s as he could not sleep due to the noise of works.

Mr Yendell has been patrolling the work areas to monitor staff, who many also said were “helpful”.

Mr and Mrs Snelling, who did not want to give their first names, have lived in Orient Way for 30 years and were two of the many to raise safety concerns about MTS’s compound.

Tankers lining the A259 (Image: Sussex News and Pictures)

Their road has also been flooded due to high tides and the numerous pits being worked on.

“The compound on the corner is a mess and makes it hard to get out,” they said.

“We’re old age pensioners we can’t get down the road.

“The road is completely underwater.

“We can’t even take our dog for a walk because there’s so much water.

“There’s always been flooding, we’ve been here 30 years, but we’ve never seen anything like this.”

Phil Mills, a resident of Brighton Road, described the situation as "chaos' and a “catastrophe” and said residents were suffering due to the noise and the amount of traffic caused by the works.

Ms Taylor apologised for the disruption.

“We’re incredibly sorry for the disruption and inconvenience to everyone here,” she said.

“There’s nothing we can do to reduce that right now but it’s the right thing to make it better in the long term.

“And we hope we can get it fixed before the Christmas period, and then come back in the New Year to fix the roads, the pavements and hopefully everyone can move forwards without Southern Water spending so much time on their roads.”