Residents have been forced to use the toilets in a Tesco supermarket for two years after the cesspool at their Bognor caravan site overflowed.
People at the Old Canal caravan park, in Lidsey Road, are reportedly having to rely on the nearby Tesco because of issues with a main cesspool used at the site, according to a representative for one of the park’s residents, Mr Rogers.
At Arun District Council’s licensing committee meeting last Friday (23 February), he told members that there had been drainage problems at the site for about two years and that the council’s response so far had been a “shocking delay”.
He said that the council promised to commission a drainage survey of the site to help find and fix the problem last summer because the caravan park owner could not do it themselves and he asked whether the survey had been completed yet.
He said: “In this day and age, it is not reasonable to expect residents on site to have to go and use the toilets in Tesco.”
Licensing committee chair Billy Blanchard-Cooper spoke on behalf of the council with a prepared response, stating “unfortunately” they had not commissioned the survey yet as they had been focusing on “other enforcement issues”.
The Liberal Democrat councillor said: “It has also proven difficult to obtain quotes for this work.
“As this has not yet been commissioned, we are unable to provide a timescale for when this will be completed. However, now legal advice has been obtained, this will be progressed.”
Mr Rogers, who used to be an environmental officer at the council, also asked about enforcement against a “defective” sewage treatment plant on the site which was “discharging” into the Old Canal behind the site.
Mr Blanchard-Cooper said that the council had issued an enforcement notice about the plant but that this had not been complied with by the site owner, stating the council had sought legal advice on the case but could not yet disclose any further information.
Conservative councillor Trevor Bence, who is also the West Sussex county councillor for the area, said that all the affected ditches and canals fed into Aldingbourne Rife which could affect many more residents than just those at the caravan park.
He said: “There needs to be very strong liaison between West Sussex County Council and the highways because this particular site sits lower on that Lidsey bend than the highway itself.
“It is subject to flooding and if we are discharging from that site into the canal, then that becomes a serious concern for all residents in Bognor Regis and the surrounding area.”
