RESIDENTS have criticised Basildon Council for its handling of a sewage complaint after a two-week leak.

People living in Fern Hill, Langdon Hills, dreaded returning to their homes due to the stench and claim the council’s response also stank.

The leak was first complained about in June and was fixed in July but residents didn’t receive an explanation for much longer, it is claimed.

Maureen Ross, vice chairman of the Langdon Hills Estate Residents’ Association, said: “Some people were physically sick, the smell was horrible, two other people also fell ill as a result of the leak.

“I complained to the council to resolve the matter and it should never have taken two weeks to solve.

“They did not just have complaints from me, they had complaints from everyone affected.

“The problem did get resolved in the two weeks, however our official complaint was not recognised for a lot longer.”

A letter from the council stated: “I am sorry you experienced difficulty in dealing with this problem.

“Our contractor attended that day to identify the problem and reported that the underground service duct needed to be pumped out to allow repairs.

“This work was agreed and the contractor later returned to clean out the duct and repair the damaged waste pipe that had caused the problem.

“It appears there was some delay between identifying the problem and completing the repair.”

During the period where the issue was unsolved, residents including Brenda Rogers, 74, and another woman in her 80s, became ill due to the sewage smell that covered their homes.

Mrs Rogers said: “My daughter was ill for a long time because of the smell.

“She had to take a lot of time of work because of it, and we could not have any of our windows or doors shut the whole time.

“Thankfully the weather was nice, as we could only eat outside due to the smell.”

The other elderly resident added: “I could not sleep or eat the whole time the leak was here.

“I felt I should move out to a hotel for the time the leak was happening as I became so sick because of the constant smell.”

Mrs Ross said that the elderly lady had the worst of the smell emanating from the broken duct.

The leak affected a total of 22 homes in Fern Hill neighbouring streets also suffered as a result of the problems.