WATCH: Family trapped after raw sewage surrounds their home

Jonathan and Michelle Doughty, from Woodley, were stunned when workmen asked them to look over their garden fence and saw the septic waste rushing towards their nearly-new property.

They immediately called Thames Water to address the problem, but the engineer dispatched to their home in Bluebell Crescent arrived to tell them that he did not deal with sewage and could not help.

A landscape gardening firm - which was commissioned to revamp the Doughty's back yard - was luckily on hand to dig an eight ft hole to allow the water to sink through and avoid going in to the house.

The pair have been blighted with problems since they moved into the Loddon Park development - ran by Taylor Wimpey - but Mr Doughty believes it was a faulty Thames Water sewage pump which caused the disaster.

He said: "The Sandford Farm sewage pumping station failed yesterday morning. This resulted in thousands of litres of sewage waste water flowing down the hill and into the River Loddon, sweeping through residents gardens and houses on the way.

"There were masses of water and it smelled very bad.

The family are anxious about heading outside the property because they do not know how badly the ground is contaminated.

Their chocolate labrador Bentley also has to stay indoors until the waste has dispersed.

The front lawn of the home had to be ripped up today [Tuesday] and disposed of to avoid any risks to their health.

"They have not told us whether it is safe to go outside," Mr Doughty added.

"It is like a rubbish tip.

"If it wasn't for the work of Pinewood Landscapes we would have been in trouble."

Mr Doughty was left furious in the aftermath of the flooding at his home yesterday.

The 53-year-old slammed Thames Water after waiting three hours for an engineer to fix the problem while they nervously watched the sewage near closer to their home.

"There is something about the letters 'TW' in this neighbourhood," he added.

"The man came from the fresh water team and said he would call it in and speak to a manager that we could not speak to but he said he did not know anything about it and did not know how to fix it.

"By that time residents gardens were flooded and houses were under threat."

A spokesman for Thames Water said workers were out at the site within two hours and will be offering to clean up the mess in residents' gardens.

The spokesman said: “We’re sorry for the issues our pumping station has caused.

"We’ve been at the site since early yesterday afternoon using tankers to pump away excess water to prevent more diluted sewage flooding into peoples’ gardens and are investigating what caused the pumping station to stop working.

"We’ll be offering to clean up any gardens which were flooded and have been contacting the affected customers to arrange this today.

"An environmental scientist tested the river water and found no sewage in it. The river was not harmed by what happened at our pumping station."

Residents in Bluebell Crescent have seen a string of problems with the newly-built homes, including insufficient insulation and flooding.