Drain block blamed on water company

THE manager of March Hippodrome admitted this week that he considered closing the venue temporarily because the stench of sewerage from a blocked main drain.Mark Dexter said customer numbers went down considerably at the bingo hall and cinema as he waited a month for Anglian Water to solve the problem.He is now keen to assure customers the drain has been unblocked and the smell has gone.He said: "Anglia Water insisted there wasn't a problem with the mains. We got a private company to check our drains, which were fine. A civil engineering company then came out last week, and found the main drains were absolutely choc-a-bloc."It was cleared within a day, but it took Anglian Water a month to get the job done."I know we have lost customers in that time, but the problem has now been resolved and cleared away."Mr Dexter says he first reported the problem to Anglian Water at the beginning of January, requesting a check of the mains sewer. After heavy rain, he said, there was up to two inches of water in the back cellar and sewage coming from the drain."It got to the point here where the smell was unbearable," he said. "You would walk in to the main hall and foyer and it would just hit you. I had customers walking out because the smell was so disgusting."An Anglian Water spokesman said: "We had workers in Dartford Road replacing man hole covers last week and it was there they found a blockage."Had this blockage been the cause of the sewer problems at the bingo hall, we would also have seen a more widespread loss of sewerage services over the last month. We are therefore continuing to investigate the possible cause of the difficulties at the hall.