Kier is to start work in the Lime Kiln Car Park on behalf of South West Water for 5 days from 13/05/24.

For weeks tankers have been ferrying “Non Hazardous” liquids through the Town, destination unknown but assumed to be Exmouth.

Jodie McDonald reports on ESCAPE:

Budleigh Today, when I asked a member of EDDC what they were doing the response was “Sewage problems, lots of issues apparently” they were there the whole time we were, leaving and coming back.

From Owl’s researches it would seem that the failure of sewage discharge pipes into the sea, most of which are of Victorian origin, is nothing new:

Budleigh Salterton Sewage Outfall, Local Government Board Inquiry 1903.

This records a 1903 inquiry into whether a storm broken sewer pipe should be extended prompting this letter to the press:

“As to the sewer outfall, after a public inquiry by a Government official, the Local Government. Board refused to sanction the scheme the local authority put before them, and advised the calling in of an engineer. This The Council have refused to do, and, although they know the danger is great, and increasing year by year, they will do nothing further until a zymotic plague enters the place, which is calculated to seriously injure the reputation of a health resort.”

Are the pipes at Maer Rocks 150 years old?

Robin Bush in “The Book of Exmouth” records that “The Board of Health” built new sewers in 1861 adding an outfall at Maer Rocks, completed in 1883, further schemes were required in 1899 and again in 1932. The Board of Health was replaced by the Exmouth Urban District Council in 1894.

How much of the current pipework dates from 1883?