Report from Daily Gazette August 1903:

“Yesterday a Local Government Board inquiry was held at the Public Rooms, Budleigh Salterton, by Colonel A. G. Durnford, R.E., with reference to an application by the Urban District Council for permission to borrow £500 for the purpose of extending the outfall sewer on the foreshore.
The majority of the members of the Council were present, and the Clerk (Mr. C. T. K. Roberts), while several ratepayers also attended.

The Surveyor said that it was proposed to extend the outfall a further 48 feet by a 22 inch cast iron pipe carried on green hard piles. The fall would be about 1 in 30. At present it was 1 in 35, and level with the beach. The extension would be raised between five and six feet at the mouth, and would be about 24 feet beyond the lowest spring tide. The mouth at present was 24 feet short of the lowest spring tide. The pipes were capable of discharging 80,500 gallons per hour. It was necessary that the outfall should be extended.

Mr Gibbs (ratepayer) said that originally the outfall sewer was two pipes longer. But they were washed away. Since then the sewer had never been known to choke. Previously a gale of wind would choke it, and two or three houses were flooded with sewage.

The Inspector pointed out that the outlet would be raised five or six feet above the beach.

Mr Simmons said he was surprised that crude sewage was allowed to discharge right into the sea front, where children paddled and people bathed. He seriously questioned whether it was worth spending £500 to carry a pipe out a few feet and run the risk of having it washed away. He considered that the sewage should be treated in some way before it was discharged.

Mr Burch was of the opinion that, as the size of the size of the town increased, a different system of disposal and larger pipes would be required.

The Rev. D. Cork doubted whether the present scheme would prove effective and satisfactory.

Mr. Marker maintained that the sewage flowed straight out to sea in a south-easterly direction.

Mr. Maratte said this was not so, that the outfall was most dangerous to health at present. There should be some system for rendering the sewage innocuous.

Dr. Edmonds agreed that the outfall was at present injurious to health and a great nuisance to bathers.

Mr Kempson said he had constantly seen the sewage washing backwards and forwards about eight feet from the beach on the western side. If the pipe was carried farther out it would to a certain extent be effectual.

The inquiry was then concluded.”

January 1904 part of a letter about various things to the Urban District Council from Mr Fergusson of Pinewood:

“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.”

Submitted by Roger Lendon 2015

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