Thames Water has confirmed it is investigating a foul odour reported coming from manholes at the end of Winchester Close in Swindon, after local councillor Marco Di Pinto raised the issue on social media on Saturday 3 October alongside a string of other complaints in his ward.
Also flagged were a water leak outside a property on Nythe Road, overgrown trees at a Thames Water site on Weedon Road, and mud left across the footpath and carriageway at Sandgate following a recent burst water main repair. Cllr Di Pinto said he had additionally asked for the lighting under the Marlowe Avenue underpass to be inspected, and that he had raised a wider batch of casework with Swindon Borough Council and Stratton St Margaret Parish Council. A Thames Water spokesperson said the reports were being looked into.
It is understood the investigation will involve specialist equipment, protective clothing, and at least one person standing a respectful distance away pointing at the relevant manhole.
Residents of Winchester Close say they could have saved everyone the trouble, having identified the smell some weeks ago using nothing more sophisticated than their own noses, which they describe as 'standard issue' and 'not even that good'.
"I'm not one to gossip," said Brenda Pask, 72, of Old Town, who has lived there since before it was old, "but I hear they've sent a man out with a clipboard to smell a drain. In my day you knew what a smell was straight off, you didn't need an investigation, you needed a bit of bleach and to stop blaming next door's dog. Ron used to say if it smells like drains, it's drains. He wasn't wrong about much, Ron, except Elvis, but we don't talk about that."
Gary Tench, Area Manager at Tench Paper Solutions in Westlea, said the situation had given him a new way of thinking about the office. "Unidentified source, ongoing investigation, nobody taking ownership, that's basically every complaint about the third floor toilets," he said. "I've told Julie we should run our own internal odour audit, very proactive, gets ahead of the narrative. She said we don't have a narrative, we have a photocopier that smells of burnt toast. I said that's exactly the kind of thinking that holds this company back."
By midweek the investigation had widened to take in the overgrown trees on Weedon Road, which Thames Water is understood to be assessing separately, and the mud at Sandgate, which remains on the footpath pending further comment. The underpass lighting is still awaited. A council spokesperson said the matters raised were being reviewed in the usual way.
The manholes at the end of Winchester Close, meanwhile, continue to do what manholes do, and declined to comment.