Plans for a new sewage system in Laxey have been put on hold until the issue of flooding is resolved in the village.

Manx Utilities have been planning to be a new treatment plant on the former holiday chalet site, at the north of the harbour.

To access the site, a bridge would be constructed downstream of the replacement Old Laxey bridge.

However, at the meeting with Laxey residents to discuss the flooding of two weeks ago, Manx Utilities chairman Dr Alex Allinson MHK said the scheme has been put on hold.

Speaking to the Examiner, Dr Allinson explained: ’There has been a lot of concern about the flooding and the way it might affect a future sewage treatment works for Laxey which is planned to be based at the bottom of the river.

’The Manx Utilities board met last week and in view of these recent events, we have suspended plans to put that before planning.

’We need to have more information, we need to look at what happened last week and deal with that properly.’

We have previously reported on residents opposed to the plans for the new treatment works.

The campaign group Best Environmental Sewage Treatment (BEST) agrees a sewage solution in Laxey is needed to improve the quality of sea water.

Treatment

But it thinks Manx Utilities’ plan of introducing Integral Rotating Biological Contactors (IRBC) treatment units is not the right way to proceed.

An IRBC is a plant where all treatment processes on sewage are contained within one unit and effluent is discharged to a watercourse with settled solids taken away.

Currently Laxey waste water is drained into a storage tank on the northern side of the harbour.

It flows untreated into the sea via an outfall pipe.

The group’s concerns include odours and the number of trucks emptying the sewage every day.

It also questions whether the IRBC plant would remove all ’harmful bacteria’, which swimming groups and children could be exposed to.