FRUSTRATED RESIDENTS have said that they are concerned for their welfare after suffering for years with overflowing sewage outside their front doors.

Despite many calls and complaints to both Thames Water Drainage and the Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing the issue has remained consistent for several homes in Brattain Court.

Although the issue has been kept under control through the years, neighbours have hit out saying enough is enough when the latest incident involved potential flooding for nearby homes.

According to residents, the overflow of sewage is due to the lateral pipes outside the building getting blocked. This then causes the build-up of water and sewage in the drain.

A 61-year-old resident, Kerry Pincott said contacted the News expressing his outrage. He said: “We have been plagued with this problem for years, but it hasn’t started to seriously affect us until the last few months.

“Normally there was a sensor which alerted the company when the drain was starting to overflow which was then swiftly fixed with an emergency callout.

“Now that we have found that the housing company have switched contractors, the raw sewage that has started to pool out of the drain is very worrying.”

On Thursday, September 7, a resident alerted both MTVH and Thames Water Drainage of the problem when an engineer didn’t appear to pump the drain outside their home.

Although this was contracted to ‘Willow Pumps’ in the past, they were made aware that the housing association changed to a different company who had yet to realise there was a problem with an overflowing drain.

An issue was raised that the area required pumping to prevent further issues.

On September 20 however, residents woke up to litres of raw sewage pumping out of their drain and onto the area at the front of the property.

Despite this being reported at 10:52am on Wednesday morning, neighbours and affected residents were told that the problem couldn’t be fixed until the next day. At 11: 20 the following day, Thames Valley Drainage arrived to resolve the problem.

Mr Pincott said: “My next-door neighbour, who’s front door the main drain is opposite has taken out insurance in preparation for such an event. It really is unacceptable.

"Although I've only lived here for five years, there are residents who have lived in the building for 16 years and it has always caused a problem."

The News contacted Thames Water, who confirmed that they responded to reports of flooding at Brattan Court on Thursday, September 21.

This is despite neighbours alerting MTVH on the previous day.

A Thames Valley Spokesman said: "Our engineers attended the same day and located a manhole which overflowed due to the heavy rainfall. This was pumped away and the surrounding areas disinfected and cleaned.

"We are sorry to any customers who were impacted by the flooding and would like to assure them customer support is available 24/7 on 0800 316 9800."

A spokesperson for Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing said: “We understand the distress this situation has caused to residents. We take all reports of sewage spillage extremely seriously and have attended Brattain Court on four occasions since 7th September to address these reports and issues with drains at the estate. The Area Surveyor has attended again today, and we are confident that this issue has now been resolved.

"We will continue to monitor this situation and will take immediate action should we receive any further reports at Brattain Court.”