FROME’S drainage infrastructure is to be reviewed by Wessex Water.
The news has been welcomed by local organisation Friends of the River Frome, who recently raised concern about sewage overspill into the River Frome, caused mostly by the town’s Victorian drainage system, which they said would require significant investment” from Wessex Water to upgrade it.
Wessex Water will also be reviewing the issue of sewage overflows affecting Lower Keyford and the Dippy, which Friends of the River Frome say will support their work to rewild the area.
On behalf of Friends of the River Frome, Sue Everett told Frome Times, “It is becoming even more pressing because of the large number of new houses already built in recent years and many more to be built in the near future (e.g. Saxonvale) – putting huge pressure on the town’s already inadequate drainage system.
“Wessex Water will also be letting a contract shortly to review what can be done to remove the problem of sewage overflows affecting Lower Keyford and the Dippy – Friends of the River Frome is keen for the Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) in this area to be resolved as we have been working with the Wild Trout Trust and Frome Town Council to design a scheme to get rid of that culvert and ‘rewild’ the stream, plus there is a public health issue having a watercourse in a public park that is often contaminated with raw sewage.
“The design has been done and costed, but because there is a sewage pipe linked to it, nothing can be done until the Wessex Water investigations are completed. It will be 2021 at the earliest before we know the results of that investigation.”
