Angry Hastings residents say area near Alexandra Park has become an 'environmental and ecological disaster' due to sewage leaks

Myriam Lengline said there had been several leaks since the middle of last month.

The latest one happened at the weekend, with tankers being spotted in the area on Sunday (June 25).

Myriam said: “We are fighting to get answers and transparency from Southern Water. There has been a big, very serious environmental and ecological disaster on our doorstep, with several sewage leaks since mid-May in the gill which is completely polluted and contaminated.

"The communication from Southern Water has been absolutely appalling. They have kept everyone in the dark. They have left, as far as we are concerned, the gill to rot with the sewage waste festering and getting absolutely putrid, endangering nature, the environment and wildlife, which is counting on this water to survive during the heatwave.

"Residents come here for walks and for leisure and for wellbeing, both mental and physical. We want to know exactly what has happened and why it has happened.”

Southern Water said the latest leak was caused by a ‘broken sewer’.

The latest development comes after Buckshole Reservoir was closed last week until further notice due to ‘sewage leaks’.

Warning signs were placed by Hastings & Bexhill Angling Association and members of Hastings Alexandra Park Community.

Last month residents said there had been a ‘strong toxic smell and untreated sewage’ in the stream that runs south through Old Roar Gill and Coronation Wood Nature Reserve into Buckshole Reservoir.

Eoin Freeman, of Hare Way, said the smell had been occurring for more than a week.

He wrote to borough councillors Paul Foster, John Rankin, Andy Batsford and Peter Pragnell to inform them of the problem.

Sewage trucks were also spotted in the area.

A clean-up operation is still ongoing.

Buckshole Reservoir in Alexandra Park is popular with anglers and dog walkers.

A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “Following the initial incident last month we have stepped up our sampling across the area. This has found various issues in the Old Roar Gill area, including a number of misconnections.

“A misconnection is where wastewater is incorrectly connected to a surface water drain rather than a foul sewer. We believe there could be several in this part of Hastings so our teams are looking for them as part of our ongoing work to reduce pollution.

“On Saturday (June 24) we discovered a leak from a manhole on St Helen’s Road, near Coronation Wood which was caused by a defect in the sewer leading to this manhole. We acted immediately to put in place protection measures including sandbags and haybales to minimise the risk to the environment and completed a repair on Sunday (June 25).

“On June 16 we carried out an investigation after we were concerned about water with high ammonia readings. As part of this we discovered a leak and relined two sewers near Ghyllside Drive, we have continued to reline sewers in this area as our investigations continue and we hope to complete further relining by Friday (June 30) at Ghyllside Drive.”

The spokesperson said the company had been working ‘around the clock’ since the first sewage problem was identified last month.

The company said the ‘watercourse of pollution’ happened after a blockage caused a manhole to spill into Bucks Hole Pond.

The firm added it was working closely with the Environment Agency.

The spokesperson said: “Since May we have been in the Alexandra Park area after a pollution event at Bucks Hole Pond in St Leonards.

“We take pollution very seriously and although we had identified and fixed the initial blocked manhole that caused this problem, we kept teams in the area to continue the important work of testing, cleaning the pond and minimising any environmental impacts.

“We remain in regular communication with local councillors in the area and the Environment Agency.”