DETERMINED residents have won a long battle over the ownership of a sewage pumping station and a £20,000 repair bill.

They are seeking compensation but fear other homebuyers may face similar problems.

The buyers of 10 new homes in Button Lane, Bearsted, near Maidstone, in 1999/2000 had no idea that five years later they would be asked to take over the pumping station and face a huge repair bill.

Like most householders, they assumed sewage was the responsibility of Southern Water.

The homes, bought from Maidstone-based housebuilder Hillreed and landowner Middlefields, were below the level of the estate's main sewer.

Builders had to put in a rising main and pumping station to receive the sewage from the 10 houses and pump it up to the main sewer.

In 2005, lawyers acting for Middlefields sent the householders a letter telling them to set up a management company and take over the pumping station.

Residents formed an action group after discovering the station needed repairs costing an estimated £20,000, without which their houses could have been polluted with sewage.

They found out Southern Water had delayed approval because access to the site was too narrow. After a two-year campaign they persuaded Southern Water to take over the pumping station.

Bill Wayland, the campaign's leader said: “After much work and angst we eventually got our sewage adopted by the proper authority."

See Friday's Kent Messenger for the full story.