Going down the drain
Much of the sewer infrastructure across Sefton Central dates back to the rise in housebuilding over 100 years ago. The sewers were constructed using the skills available at the time and in many cases were laid on the sandy sub-soil which lies below much of the coastal area.
Over the years, the sewers have had to cope with an increased amount of water and effluent as vast amounts of new houses have been built, large houses converted into flats, and as people paved over their lawns to provide car parking spaces.
It is amazing therefore that for many years these sewers have generally managed to cope with everything thrown at them or poured down them. The original sewers have to deal with household sewage but also rainwater from houses and road gullies.
Responsibility for the sewers rests with United Utilities, whilst Sefton Council is responsible for the roadways and gullies which discharge into UU’s sewers.
Recently, there has been an increase in the number of potholes and sink holes in the road surface, along the line of these old sewers.
The first point of contact for residents is Sefton Council, via the on-line “Report It” service. The Council’s usual response is to despatch their highway maintenance team to cut out the damaged area and fill in the sink-hole with a load of tarmac.
For example, 6 years ago a sink-hole appeared near Hall Road Station when a road gully, part of the footpath and the road surface began to crumble. Sefton Council duly laid new tarmac, but failed to investigate the reason for the subsidence. Within months, the ground began to subside again.
This reporting and repair activity became an annual event and the subsided area was filled repeatedly - a job creation scheme for the highway maintenance contractors. By June 2024 the reason for the collapse became apparent. This necessitated United Utilities closing Hall Road East for 3 weeks and digging a massive hole to replace a section of collapsed sewer.
The question is, why did Sefton Council not involve United Utilities far earlier, rather than take 6 years pouring tarmac into what was clearly a major sink hole? This is a waste of council money and should have been referred to United Utilities far sooner to rectify.
Marcus Bleasdale, our candidate to be the MP for Sefton Central commented:
“The problem of road subsidence as a result of collapsed sewers is evident across much of the borough but there needs to be better liaison by Sefton Council with United Utilities to resolve the problem. There needs to be financial accountability so that ratepayers’ money is not being wasted on issues which are the responsibility of United Utilities.”
