Ten Year Campaign Success

After a 10 year campaign by Cllr Dave Hockey and Steve Webb MP there is good news in the battle to tackle the problem of sewage debris left stranded along the Frome Valley following heavy rain and flooding.

In December, Ofwat finally provided funding for Wessex Water to construct a 5km long sewer pipeline between Frampton Cotterell and Bradley Stoke to provide additional capacity for the new developments planned for Yate, Harry Stoke and Emerson's Green. It will enable flows from Yate to reach the sewage works at Avonmouth  via a more direct route and hence free up capacity in the existing sewer that runs along the Frome valley and through the city centre.

Wessex will shortly be writing to landowners with a leaflet to introduce them to the scheme. Environmental surveys will be carried out in 2015.  There is still much work to do to decide which is the optimal route for the pipe and how it will be constructed and construction is expected to start in 2017/18.

Reducing sewage spills in the Frome Valley

After more than 15 years campaigning, Dave Hockey is delighted that Wessex Water are at last installing a very large screening system which hopefully will  eliminate the solid sewage waste discharged into the River Frome following heavy rainfall.


The major scheme at Cog Mill, Iron Acton is well under way. Wessex Water state that work should be completed on site by August when the Frome Valley Walkway will be reinstated along the riverside.


Dave Hockey said, “After years of suffering from sanitary towels, condoms and other sewage waste left stranded on the Glebe Land and along the banks of the River Frome after floodwaters have subsided, I hope that this second scheme is more effective than the first – we’ll watch the results with great interest.”