'We'll finally see an end to sewage flooding our gardens'

Diverting a sewer in an area where gardens are regularly flooded will end more than 20 years of "constant anxiety", a campaigner has said.

Riverside flood defences were installed in 2002 in Norton near Malton, but have since caused the sewer network to become overwhelmed during heavy rainfall.

Work to divert the network towards a wastewater pumping station was expected to take about six weeks, Yorkshire Water said.

Norton town mayor Di Keal, who lives in a property affected, said: "We've waited an awful long time for this. In 2026 it is unacceptable to have raw sewage surrounding people's houses."

She also campaigned for the main flood defences, which were "brilliant", she said.

"They've saved maybe 150 houses from being flooded inside.

"This was just the last piece of the jigsaw that they hadn't sorted out."

The local sewer network carries both wastewater and surface water flows.

As a result, it becomes overwhelmed by rain water which would previously have run into the River Derwent, before the flood wall was installed.

The sewage then overflows through drainage systems in gardens.

It is only prevented from entering homes by temporary pumping systems, Keal said.

"They have to put tankers out there and basically suck out the sewers 24/7 to just get the sewage away and stop it going into people's properties."

When water has receded following a flood, Yorkshire Water sends "men with disinfectant and they spray everywhere and clean it up", Keal said.

"The smell just lingers."

Flooding has caused damage to a wooden shed in her garden, as its floor rotted "to the extent that two years ago I fell through the floor".

Mark Allsop, partnerships officer at Yorkshire Water, said the scheme was "incredibly important".

"We're pleased to be able to start the work," he said.

"Our teams will be working as quickly as possible, so that residents can start to feel the benefit of the work in the very near future."

Keal said the work taking place was "wonderful".

"It means that people who live down here won't need to worry every time we get torrential rain."

She said she would "never say never" until the water level in the River Derwent was high but there was no sewage in gardens.

"The way weather patterns are changing with climate change, we are getting that intense rain over and over again and that's what pushes it up so quickly," she added.

"It's a wonderful feeling to think that finally we may have solved this problem."

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