“There are regular and increasing failures of pumps and infrastructure leading to raw sewage flowing onto highways and footpaths."

These are the words of Hemingford Grey resident Phil Mcguire who is campaigning for an overhaul of the local sewage system after hazardous waste flooded his road.

It meant that his family had to spend Christmas Day at his sister-in-law's house.

In correspondence sent to Mr McGuire from Anglian Water, chief executive Peter Simpson said they had spent £2m in the sewerage system in the Hemingfords over the last 20 years.

In a bid to ease concerns following the sewage floods in recent weeks, Mr Simpson explained in the letter:

“We have doubled our tankering fleet over this period and you will know that we have been tankering floodwater away from our pumping station in Mill Lane, Hemingford Grey to mitigate the impact on residents.

“We have also been working with the tactical co-ordinating group, established through Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Resilience Forum, to ensure efforts on the ground are co-ordinated.

“The National Flood Framework identifies that local authorities are responsible for co-ordinating support for their communities ensuring welfare needs are met, to enable us to focus on ensuring our assets are operating as they should.

“It is clear that we can improve on this co-ordination and support within communities and will implement this learning alongside other responders.

“The service issues and flooding reported to us have now been resolved so we do not feel, at this time, that additional tankering is required.

“We will however keep the tanker in place 24/7 until the system has fully recovered. We have had teams attend Hemingford Grey to complete clean ups in the village.

“Flooding and other risks from climate change are at the heart of our long-term investment planning, and we have a long-term ambition to ensure the that the East of England is resilient to the risk of flooding.

“Our investment programme balances these risks across our region and I can confirm that in the last 20 years we have invested around £2m in the sewerage system in the Hemingfords.”

To view the petition launched by residents in Hemingford Grey visit: https://bit.ly/3b7A9Ru