A SPRING book sale in aid of Bishop's Castle Town Hall raised £388 on Saturday, April 8.

This was in spite of a flow of noxious raw sewage streaming down the hill on Friday afternoon from an overflowing manhole at the top of the town, caused by a broken sewage pipe.

Some shops were forced to close and a Severn Trent clean-up team arrived on Saturday afternoon from Whitchurch.

Bishop's Castle mayor Jane Carroll said the situation had been handled very badly by Severn Trent and add: “They were told about the situation on Friday and didn’t arrive until 24 hours later to stop the flow.

"This meant that evening visitors to Bishop's Castle, and there is a good number of them, were walking in the affected area.

"Shropshire council erected some barriers and on Sunday morning Severn Trent returned to do more of a clean up.”

Bishop's Castle Town Council added the incident to the agenda for their meeting on Tuesday and Jane Carroll expects the council to make a complaint to Severn Trent.

Last Thursday, the Severn Trent cleaning team visited the town again and carried out a third clean-up of Market Square and the High Street.