Residents of Milton Combe have expressed both concern and horror in the past week, following the mysterious contamination of the brook flowing through the village.

The discolouration was first noticed by residents last Monday, with it continuing throughout the week, easing only slightly with heavy rainfall.

There were several further reports of it being contaminated and muddy in appearance on Monday of this week.

Several residents reported their concerns to the Environment Agency and South West Water, who assured them they would investigate and sent officers out to the site. Many residents believe the contamination was emanating from the nearby Abbey Meadows development, currently under construction.

One concerned resident, Trish Deykin, said: ‘It appears the construction site has put building waste material down a storm drain which has gone into Milton Brook. Usually we get run off but this wasn’t run off though from fields, it’s a completely different colour.

‘The brook looks a little milky now but I still won’t let my dog near it. They started building the newbuild development about a year ago – it used to be a livery yard. South West Water said they tested the water and it wasn’t sewerage.

‘We may be a small village but that doesn’t make us any less significant and the law is there for a reason. This pollution is unacceptable. We are great wildlife lovers here with fish, kingfishers and herons within the brook area and this disregard for wildlife is a sad state of affairs.’

The contamination was photographed by another local resident entering the brook from a storm drain located close to a nearby construction sites.

A spokesperson for South West Water said: ‘Following a report of discolouration to the watercourse, we sent a team to the site to investigate. They discovered a muddy discharge coming from a surface water outfall and traced the issue back to a building site upstream. We carried out water quality sampling which showed no indication of sewage.‘As this is a private drainage issue, we passed the information over to the Environment Agency. I understand that the Environment Agency attended the site on the same day and had discussions with the site manager. Measures should now be in place to prevent further issues.’ An Environment Agency spokesperson said: ‘The Environment Agency received multiple reports of pollution of the Milton Combe Stream (a tributary of the River Tavy) on Monday and Tuesday this week.

‘Our officers attended and we believe to have identified the source and the pollution has now stopped. We will be providing our formal response to the polluter in due course.’

Despite being asked, the Environment Agency did not reveal the identity of the polluter.

The Times approached the housebuilder, Richborough Estates, for a comment, but at the time of going to print, had not received a response.