A group of residents in Sheffield have said their local green space is being ruined by dirty discoloured water and waste in a stream.
Sheffield Lane Dike, which runs through the Tongue Gutter wildlife site in Parson Cross, is managed by Yorkshire Water.
Mandy Beer, who lives nearby, said the stream had an “awful smell, like toilets flushing and washing machines emptying”, and contained “thousands of baby wipes”.
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said its teams had “identified a number of nearby properties where bathrooms, washing machines and sinks are plumbed into the surface water sewer incorrectly” and was contacting affected residents so the issue could be fixed.
Beer, 62, who said she had grown up in Parson Cross and used to play in the wooded area as a child, said the area used to be “tremendous”.
“We had everything from deer, even shrimps in the water, it’s a beautiful place to live.”
But she said she noticed five years ago that dirty water was regularly flowing out from a storm overflow outlet near the entrance of the site.
“We saw the outlet was spewing out some sort of waste,” she said.
“Now we see sanitary towels, tampons and thousands upon thousands of baby wipes.”