‘Cut the crap’: Protesters walk to town hall dressed as poo as tenant’s flat flooded with sewage

A group of protesters marched to a town hall dressed as poo to confront a council over a resident whose flat has flooded with sewage three times in the past year.

Members of ACORN Lambeth, a tenants’ campaign group, marched to Lambeth town hall in Brixton on Saturday to highlight the issue of the leaked sewage.

Their member, Fehintola Aziome, who has been living with sewage leaking in the flat he shares with his mother on the Central Hill Estate in Brixton, said the council had treated them like “second class citizens”.

He said in a testimony, which was read outside the town hall: “We have lived on edge, not knowing when the next time it’s going to happen.

“My mother’s room was completely flooded with raw sewage. She has been living in the living room for the past three months, sleeping on the sofa. I have had to work in sewage unable to breathe because our house was smelling like a tip.

“My mother is 65 years old, has health issues and the stress of all of this has made things much worse.

“The council have treated us like second class citizens and have not taken this seriously. Every time it happens it takes about three to four days of constant calling to get them to do anything.”

Accompanied by a human poo mascot and a giant pile of cardboard poo, the protesters demanded the council pay Fehintola and his mother £3,200 in compensation.

This includes the cost of cleaning the carpet, goods damaged, a service charge for the 10 months during which the flooding took place, and compensation for stress time and obstructions to daily life.

An ACORN spokeswoman said: “The council’s failure to act on this issue should be much more embarrassing to them than any poo costume or art piece we leave on their doorstep, but so far, it hasn’t moved them to do the right thing. 

“Luckily, we have the community behind us, with 88 people already getting on board to email the head of Lambeth housing on Fehintola’s behalf. We know that together we can win our member what he deserves.”

The flat, of which his mum is a leaseholder, has been flooded with sewage three separate times – October 27, June 4 and July 5. 

ACORN said Lambeth council took multiple days to stop the flooding on two occasion and did not investigate until after the July incident.

Fehintola has had to replace furniture, clothes, and have his carpet professionally cleaned and says his mum’s health has been threatened.

A Lambeth council spokesman said: “We tackled the problem at this flat, and the wider problems with the drains at the estate, as a matter of urgency.

“Our contractors have cleared a number of drains, including a blocked drain at the side of the property, and restored the full flow to this flat.

“The repair was a complex one that took longer than we had initially hoped to resolve. We have apologised for this problem and the distress it caused to this family in the meantime.

“These residents are of course entitled to apply for compensation, and they have previously been provided with details of how to lodge that claim to start the process.”

Pictured top: ACORN Lambeth protesters outside Lambeth town hall (Picture: ACORN Lambeth)