RAW sewage flowed down the streets of a village this weekend, sparking anger from residents who claim the local sewer network is not fit for purpose.

Residents of Middleton St George, near Darlington, have described a terrible stench filling the streets as the liquid effluent rose from manhole covers on Saturday, spilling over driveways, gardens and along the gutters well into Sunday afternoon.

Northumbrian Water said the problems in the St George’s Gate area of the village were caused by a blockage that has now been cleared.

The company said it has teams working in the area using cameras to check the system is now clear.

Middleton St George regularly experiences problems with overflowing sewers but until now the problem has always been blamed on excess rain causing the system to flood.

With no heavy rain for at least two weeks, residents say the latest incident proves that the sewers are struggling to cope with the amount of houses using the network following a number of large housing estates built in recent years.

The Northern Echo:

Sewage flows down Middleton Lane in a separate incident.

Residents and the parish council have been campaigning against overdevelopment in recent months following a number of applications for further housing estates that could add an extra 700 homes to the village.

A petition against the overdevelopment of Middleton St George, which also calls for building work to be prevented until the sewage problems are dealt with, has been started by members of the village community centre, with hundreds of signatures already collected.

Local MP Phil Wilson and ward councillors Doris Jones and Steve York have arranged to meet with Communities and Local Government under secretary Stephen Williams next week to urge him to support the village fight against developers and present the petition.

Mr Wilson has also arranged a meeting with Northumbrian Water bosses to get to the bottom of the sewage problems in Middleton St George.

Residents Terry and Kataryna Hudson, who live close to a proposed 200 home development in Grendon Gardens, are supporting the fight against additional development.

Mrs Hudson said: “If the sewage can’t cope with the houses that are here now, how will it cope when there are more houses?”

Councillor Jones said: “I couldn’t believe it when I saw it, it was stinking. Raw sewage running over people’s gardens.

“We can see our quality of life diminishing in this village and developers want to just keep pushing houses on us.”

The Northern Echo:

Sewage flows down Middleton Lane in a separate incident.

Janine Scott, from Northumbrian Water, said: “We are following this incident up with an internal inspection of the pipes using CCTV to make sure the pipes are operating correctly.

“We’ve now got a project underway looking at the historic reported problems in the village so we have a better understanding of the issues to help with a long term solution. We will continue to work with councillors and residents on this.”