SIR - Re: Sidford’s lost fresh water. I read Peter Wide’s letter in the Herald.

In the past, when there were planning applications to build houses there were problems about the pressure on the sewage system, which was very old and emptied into the world’s biggest dustbin, the sea. South West Water, after many years, decided to do something about it and built a large tank under the Ham to accept the raw sewage and a pumping station to pump the raw sewage up to Sidford, where a treatment works was built.

One of the protests was that there was a borehole north of Sidford with fresh water. By building the treatment works there, that supply of fresh water was lost forever. What if there was a leak from one of those concrete tanks?

Well, by inspecting the outside of the tanks, it would be seen.

My question is. “What if there was a leak from the bottom of the tank?” Would the leaking sewage affect our drinking water? One good thing we were told was that there would be no smell?

Now houses have sprung up everywhere, with the problem with sewage gone. Over one hundred up at Stowford and at Waitrose to be built. Houses on the land the land set aside for the Sidford bypass already built.

Jack Brokenshire

Sidmouth