YORKSHIRE Water has issued a plea to the residents of Clifton in York after making a grim discovery.

Workers there have uncovered hundreds of plastic bags in the sewer network, near the company's pumping station on Tamworth Road.

If they had not been cleared, the bags could have led to disgusting consequences for local residents.

The YW team visits the area every week to remove bags and wet wipes that have been flushed down the toilet.

Wipes, even the so-called 'flushable' ones, don't break down in the sewer system as they contain plastic, which builds up over time causing blockages.

The waste then has nowhere to go and backs up to where it came from, causing internal flooding in customers' homes.

YW spokeswoman Amy Bradley said: "These plastic bags and the wet wipes are a big problem for our sewer network and we would ask that whoever is putting them in the sewers to please stop.

"There is a real danger that [they] could cause flooding in residents' homes and also damage the local environment.

"We would ask customers to only flush the three ps: pee, poo and paper."

Every year, YW is called out to repair more than 30,000 sewer blockages across the region, costing £2.4 million.

Around 40 per cent of these blockages are caused by wet wipes flushed down the toilet.

For more information about blockages visit yorkshirewater.com/blockages