Borehamwood gardens suffering from sewage flooding

After her garden flooded twice again in just six weeks, Sarah May, who lives in Hillside Avenue, says she "has had enough" and has escalated her complaint with Thames Water.

Sarah, who lives in the property with her partner and 25-year-old daughter, says her garden and garage has repeatedly been left covered in two to three feet of sewage - the most recent incident occurred on June 18.

The mother has videos of muddy floodwater which has destroyed flowerbeds and left human faeces rotting in her garden.

Flooding in Sarah's garden

The sewage water is gushing out of a drain in Sarah's garden which not only ruins her property but leaves an "unbearable smell".

Watch a video of ths sewage flooding at Sarah May's property below

She said: "This has been going on since around 2011 but enough is enough. I shouldn't have to live like this.

"When we get heavy rain my heart melts because I know what is about to happen. I'm left with human faeces in the garden and it has ruined quite a lot of stuff including the flowerbeds and my camping gear."

Sarah's neighbour, Debbie Freed, says she has been dealing with flooding for more than 20 years. The worst came in 2015 when her garden looked more like a swimming pool.

Flooding in Debbie Freed's garden

Sarah says she has been on at Thames Water to fix the issue for years and accused the water supplier of "dragging its heels".

"At the beginning, Thames Water said they couldn't do anything about it. Then they tell me they are still investigating it and they know what problem is but they are not doing anything.

"It’s taken nearly ten years to sort this out, it’s not acceptable."

Flooding in Sarah's garden

Sarah, who has rented the property in Hillside Avenue from Clarion Housing for around 15 years, says she recently learned about a pumping station near the bottom of her garden which she understood may be linked to the flooding.

But a Thames Water spokesperson has told the Times the pumping station is "working correctly" after engineers investigated it in May.

Instead, further investigations are taking place to determine if there are further faults on the sewer network.

Water gushing out of a drain in Sarah's garden

A Thames Water spokesperson said: "We’re sorry Ms May has experienced problems with sewer flooding in her garden. We appreciate this is unpleasant and our engineers are doing all they can to resolve this.

"We believe groundwater is entering our sewer network in the area following periods of heavy rainfall and escaping through a nearby manhole which is causing her garden to flood.

"We visited the property on June 30 to inspect our sewers with cameras so we can find out where the excess water is entering the network. We’re also going to check the larger sewer under Cardinal Avenue for any blockages and to make sure the system is flowing correctly.

"We’ll then organise any further work on the network based on the results of these investigations."