CALDICOT residents were left cleaning up floodwater and raw sewage after a downpour just months after a £1.2 million sewage system was installed.

Residents of Castle Lea and Chepstow Road were faced with an emergency clean-up on Friday after heavy rain caused water and sewage to leak from manhole covers.

Castle Lea residents say the problems have plagued them for around 40 years, but they thought progress was being made when Welsh Water began installing a new £1.2 million sewerage system last November.

Caldicot Cllr John Marshall said the manhole covers in Chepstow Road and near Jolyon’s Court were pushed up by water and “raw effluent”

and he believes extra houses planned will only make things worse.

Abi Watts, who runs Rosies Florist, said: “We came back and the water had come inside so we were trying to brush it out and the storage area was flooded.”

A Welsh Water spokesman said investigations into the problem were ongoing.