Kent

Cesspit and cesspool services in Lydd

Lydd sits at the edge of the Dungeness shingle, and the ground here decides what a property can have far more than the owner does. Between the shingle, the water table and the conservation designations across the point, a sealed cesspool is the answer on a great many plots rather than a septic tank.

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KP Cesspool Services orange vacuum tanker parked on a Kent country lane with its suction hose run out

We cover Lydd, Lydd on Sea, Dungeness and the properties out along the coast road. A sealed tank needs emptying on a regular cycle rather than when it becomes a problem, so most of what we do here is scheduled work.

Working in Lydd

Sealed cesspools are common here, and they need emptying every few weeks rather than once a year.
The water table sits high across the whole area, which is hard on older tanks and on anything with a failed joint.
Salt and coastal wind take their toll on covers and fittings, so we check them every visit.

Shingle, a protected point and sealed tanks

Lydd stands on the edge of Dungeness, one of the largest expanses of shingle in Europe, and much of the point is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Area of Conservation and part of a Special Protection Area. The town shares its parish with the airport, the army ranges and the scattered houses of Lydd on Sea and Dungeness itself.

Those designations are a large part of why so many properties here run a sealed cesspool. Under the General Binding Rules, a new discharge to ground cannot rely on the rules within 50 metres of the protected sites, or within 500 metres for a discharge to water, and across much of the point that leaves nothing that discharges. A cesspool needs emptying every few weeks, so scheduled emptying is most of the work here. Are cesspools still legal explains why they remain a proper answer.

The water table sits high, so an older tank with a cracked wall takes on groundwater, and coastal salt is hard on covers and fittings. While a tank is empty we look at both. Cesspit emptying in New Romney covers the same Marsh conditions a little way up the coast.