United Utilities is beginning the final phase of an £11 million scheme to tackle sewer flooding in the village of Dearham in north Cumbria.

United Utilities engineers are starting work in the village to upscale the sewer network and reduce the risk of it overflowing during heavy rainfall.

The multi-million pound project was originally proposed in 2012 but, after consulting with local residents, it became clear that the foul flooding issues were more widespread than records suggested.

Since then United Utilities has re-designed the project to make sure that as many people feel the benefit as possible. Parts of the scheme were delayed again in 2018 when ground investigations revealed old mine workings, forcing changes to the route of the new pipework.

Project manager Rachael Goodson said:

"During heavy rainfall Dearham can suffer from sewer flooding and for some people it has even affected their homes.

"The project is much larger than what was originally proposed. We went back to the drawing board and expanded the scheme to look at the entire drainage system, including the village wastewater treatment works.

“We’ve already completed most of the work to increase the capacity at the treatment plant, and already the environment is benefiting from higher levels of treatment.Now we need to increase the size of the village sewers.”

The scheme includes 3 kilometres of new or refurbished sewer, up to 1.2m in diameter and a new underground stormwater holding tank next to the wastewater treatment plant

The project, which is intended to address the problem of sewer flooding (or foul flooding) which occurs when heavy rainfall overwhelms the sewer network, should be complete and providing flood protection by July 2021.

However, the scope of the Dearham project does not extend to surface water flooding can also occur during heavy rain, when rainwater cannot drain away off the roads fast enough.