Wigan hair salon owner says staff are refusing to work and clients are leaving due to foul basement smell

Zoe Stephens opened Urban Hair Salon, on Miles Lane, Shevington, after buying the building at auction 13 years ago. However, for the past six months she has been plagued by the cellar regularly flooding with water contaminated with sewage because of a blocked drain.

She is now losing clients and employees are refusing to work because they say the fumes are making them ill.

Zoe, 48, said: "The cellar has regularly been flooding out with sewage and it’s now got to the stage where staff are refusing to come in because of the horrible smell. It's affecting our livelihood and I may have to shut the business down."

Zoe claimed the problem originated from an old school building to the rear of the salon. After it closed a few years ago, the cellar began to flood.

She added: "It's never empty and is permanently full of water. The stench coming out from there into the business is horrendous. The girls who work here said they weren't happy, they were feeling sick and had headaches and they think the fumes have got something to do with it."

Zoe and husband Mark have been in regular contact with Wigan Council to get the blocked drain repaired and stop the cellar flooding. They also claim the smell of oil from a nearby leaking bunker at a council works site is "horrific" and the water is black. The hair salon’s basement has been pumped on four occasions to try and alleviate the issue, and a further pump is scheduled.

It is understood council contractors are now on site in a bid to resolve the issue. As the work affects three private home and land owners, it could not start until agreement was received from all parties. It is believed the problem stems from the age of the buildings and their historic drainage system.

A letter received by Zoe from the council said: “We’ve been in touch with the owner of the cottages who has allowed us to access her property and we have identified a buried manhole in the rear of their property which is receiving foul waste (from the cottages) and discharging it into the drain, which runs to the manhole behind the salon.

“We have followed this up with a CCTV survey which confirms this is what is happening, and goes a long way to explaining the foul smell.

"We have proposed to the property owner that we could divert that foul water into the new development’s foul waste connection to resolve the issue. We are awaiting a date this work can be completed by our contractor and then once we have the written agreement from the property owner will commence the works ASAP.”

Jonathan Lowe, the council’s assistant director – property and assets, said: “We realise this has been an incredibly frustrating situation for the business owner and have been working with all parties to alleviate the issue until the root cause could be found and rectified.

“We have undertaken extensive surveys and identified historic issues with the surrounding drainage which will now be resolved with the installation of a new drainage infrastructure by our contractor.”