A Darlington businessman has had sewage leaking on his land and into the River Tees twice a year for the last decade.

Rob Wytcherley owns a small patch of land at Stapleton, North Yorkshire, with a sewage mains pipe running over it.

Since 2013 he says that he has had to put up with the 130-year-old pipe leaking at least twice a year.

Despite numerous complaints to Northumbrian Water for a permanent solution to be found it has been repeatedly patched up.

The water company claimed that the land on which the project would need to take place on was contaminated with asbestos.

However, the results of an inspection carried out by specialists and commissioned by Mr Wytcherley was delivered this week - and it found there was no contamination of any kind on his land.

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Mr Wytcherley said: “We have a strip of land at Stapleton which has a main pipe that runs along the river bank.

“It heads off to the sewage works. It’s now 130 years old.

“It’s been failing at least twice a year for the last 10 years.

“When it is leaking it is pumping directly into the River Tees.

“In 2013 Northumbrian Water said they were improving it.

“They were improving the pipe but when they got to my land they ran out of funds.

“I wrote a letter to Northumbrian Water last year and said we are sick of this now.

“Every time it bursts they cut the locks off the gates, cause lots of damage, dig up the bank and patch up the main.

“It’s only on the back of my complaints that there isn’t sewage going into the Tees.

“I went up on Thursday and found it running straight into the river.

“This time I wanted to draw attention to this as they will just patch it up again.

“The trouble is that this pipe is 130 years old and if it’s leaking on my bank it could be leaking in the parts in the Tees itself and you wouldn’t be able to see that.”

A spokesperson for Northumbrian Water said: “We’ve been working with Mr Wytcherley on problems with one of our pipes on his land over several years. In that time, we’ve replaced sections and carried out fixes every time there has been an issue reported to us.  

“We did begin work on a more permanent fix to the pipe, however it had to be paused when asbestos was found in the work area, and it was unsafe for us to continue.

“Once the asbestos was cleared by the landowner and it was safe then work could continue, and we have just been notified today that this has happened.

“We will look to progress our work on the permanent fix with Mr Wytcherley.”

Mr Wytcherley explained that during the last couple of years he has been complaining directly to the Environment Agency to sort out the problem.

He added: “It’s just horrendous. It absolutely stinks.

“I had been away for a while and I could smell it as soon as I came back.

“Seeing that amount of raw sewage and toilet paper coming straight out is just horrible.

“I thought that this time people needed to know what was happening.”

An Environment Agency spokesperson confirmed that the issue has been going on for years.

They said: “We have received reports of issues with a sewage pipe in Stapleton over a number of years.  

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“Every time we have been notified of the pollution our officers have responded and carried out an investigation – which has consistently found minimal impact to the watercourse.

“We have also issued enforcement notices to Northumbrian Water regarding leaks from the pipe onto land – as it is part of their network.

“It is important for members of public, if they notice pollution, to report it straight away to our free phone number 0800 80 70 60”.