I WAS shocked to read the story in the Times about the state of the sewer in Kirkland Gardens, Ballingry.

I had heard down the street about a blockage in Kirkland Gardens but had no idea it was causing the problems that it was.

I mean Wattie Moodie should not have been faced with having to pick up needles used by drug addicts and the smell must have been horrific.

But to experience human excrement flowing down the street is just not what you would expect to see.

Scottish Water’s explanation in the Times for the circumstances folk had to deal did certainly not admit any fault on their behalf.

It would seem that part of the sewer in the Gardens had collapsed and that was what caused the problem.

Surely that could have been spotted a lot quicker than two months down the line with the modern equipment they use these days.

At the end of the day they sorted things but over a space of weeks there was a horrible odour and had the weather been real summer stuff the aroma would have been even worse as the worst summer conditions in a long day saw cool wet stuff which probably kept the smell down.

Imagine needles coming up a sewerage system, that just shows what some people do, they just put anything down the loo.

Had Wattie not picked them up maybe a kid could have come across the needles and done themselves damage.

At least the problem has now been sorted but I doubt if the residents of Kirkland Gardens will forget the summer of 2017 in a hurry.

I should have been tackled much quicker and hopefully the Scottish Water people will have learned a lesson from the events in Ballingry.

DRAIN MAN,

Lochore.