Fatberg engineers in Kingston have been told to hurry up and finish repairing the sewers for the sake of residents and businesses.

Thames Water has announced it will take a further five months to fix the damage caused by the 15-tonne fat blockage beneath London Road, with work now set to extend into Cambridge Road.

But the news has been met with anger and frustration from residents and businesses in the area.

Lino Longobardi, owner of Italian restaurant Terra Mia, on the corner of London Road and Cambridge Road, said: “They will have to get their skates on and do whatever they can as quickly as possible.

“It’s vital for businesses and residents around here that the work is completed ASAP because we have had enough of it.

“Now that the schools are back traffic is an ordeal.

“I’m extremely worried. It’s a quiet time of year and it will be even quieter because of this.

“I’m worried this could be the end for us.”

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Work to fix the sewers will take an additional five months

Meanwhile residents in Norbiton Hall, which overlooks the road works in London Road, were facing up to the prospect of yet more disturbance.

Jemma Smith, 20, a third year drama student at Kingston University, said: “It’s going to be annoying, to put it mildly.

“They said it was going to take six weeks, and that was in mid-summer. Five more months is going to be irritating.

“The traffic isn’t too bad – it’s actually easier to cross the road right now. It’s the smell. Yesterday it smelled of egg. It’s going to be a distraction.”

Reverend Peter Holmes, vicar of St Peter’s Church in London Road, said Thames Water had been down to fix the sewers as recently as 2009, and wondered how a problem such as this could happen so soon after.

He said: “In 2009 they did a massive bit of work on the drains just outside the church grounds.

“We gave them permission to put a drain in which is as tall as the church tower downwards.

“I would be interested to know what was wrong with that design for it to clog up so quickly.”