A councillor is up in arms after heavy rain caused sewage to flow on to the streets of Earby.

Speaking at a meeting of West Craven Area Committee, Coun Morris Horsfield (Cons, Earby) said that over the past couple of weeks heavy downpours had forced sewage water to the surface at five locations in the town.

“Such a lot of surface water went into the sewers,” said Coun Horsfield. “Three sewers on Victoria Road, including ones outside the Co-op and the chemist, as well as sewers on Water Street and the bottom of Stoney Bank Road, all overflowed.

“In addition to foul water, toilet paper came up and people were walking through it,” he said. “What concerned me was that kids walking home from school were getting splashed.”

But Coun Horsfield reserved his anger for Yorkshire Water’s handling of the situation.

“It’s an absolute disgrace and I’m disgusted with Yorkshire Water,” he said. “They’re not fit for purpose.”

But a spokesman for Yorkshire Water said: “We clearly had a huge volume of rainfall over a period of time, resulting in a huge amount of groundwater inundating our sewage network.

“While it’s regrettable this happened, we need to look at how we could capture that sewer water more effectively.

“Pendle Council, as the lead flood authority, would be responsible for the surface water build-up. We need to work with the council and the Environment Agency to address what is an important issue concerning local residents.”

However, Pendle Council’s drainage manager Peter Sellers said the sewers were entirely Yorkshire Water’s responsibility.

“We do not get involved,” said Mr Sellers. “We help where we can, but there’s a limit to what we can do as it is their obligation to maintain the sewers.”

Area committee chairman Coun David Whipp (Lib Dem) said: “In view of the foul sewage that’s been surfacing, we’re going to send a strongly worded request to Yorkshire Water to resolve these problems.”