Takeaway boss up in arms as raw sewage left on pavement on busy Blackpool promenade for five days

A takeaway boss whose business is based just yards away was furious that the stinking mess wasn’t cleared up sooner as a matter of urgency.

Kelly Pattison, who runs Kelly’s Hot Food Takeaway next to South Pier, says he was told by water bosses there were so many other incidents, because of heavy ran, that his complaint would have to be sorted when staff could get clear.

Kelly, 57, who has run the business for 17 years, said: “It was all over the pavement, swimming in water and it absolutely stunk, at times the smell was unbearable.

"I’m not sure how it happened but you could see lumps of it, and soggy strips of toilet paper, which had obviously come from the manhole.

"Some people were covering their noses because of the smell but others didn’t realise and just stepped in it.

"This is a busy tourist area and raw sewage is not good, so it should have been cleared up as a matter of urgency.

"I am trying to sell food here – this thing was just 20 feet away from by takeaway.

"In all my time here I have never seen anything like it, it was disgusting.”

The incident occurred on Friday (July 21) and Kelly says he phoned up United Utilities as soon as he became aware of it.

A team from UU finally dealt with the issue this morning (Tuesday July 25) but the mess was left on the pavement over the weekend and all of Monday.

Kelly says Blackpool Council staff did come down on the Friday, although he did not contact them personally.

However, he says that although they did cordon it off with cones, they did not attempt to clear it up and it was left there.

A United Utilities spokesperson, said: “Following the heavy rain we have seen over the last week and a blockage in the sewer network, a manhole cover was dislodged.

“Our teams have been responding to a higher than normal number of incidents across Lancashire due to the weather and unfortunately it took longer than we’d have liked to visit the site to carry out repairs and clean the area.

"We’d like to apologise to the businesses in the area for the inconvenience this caused.”

John Blackledge, Director of Community and Environmental Services, said: “ As soon as this issue was reported to us, a member of our Highways team attended and placed cones around the flooded area.

"It was then reported to United Utilities, who have the responsibility of investigating the initial problem and also ensuring the area is cleaned.

“It is disappointing that it was left in this way for so long, if we had been made aware of the delay we would have attempted to clear it ourselves.”