Sewer flood 'caused £13k damage to community hub'

Nancy Magon said the basement the community hub uses was flooded with 12 inches (30cm) sewer water in September

A community hub said it had spent more than £13,000 after sewer water seeped up through its basement damaging items including laptops and art materials.

Nancy Magon, who runs The Hub by Aurora Family in Reading, said: "It decimated our business, we're crawling back now."

The basement the non-profit education support group usually uses as a classroom and for various workshops was flooded with 12 inches (30cm) of sewer water in September, Ms Magon said.

Thames Water apologised and said "investigations are complete and a claim for Ms Magon is currently being reviewed by our loss adjusters who will update her on the outcome as soon as possible".

Ms Magon runs various workshops for children who struggle with mainstream education

Ms Magon said Thames Water removed 40m (131ft) of scale from the drain which took place four months after the flooding and took a week to finish.

During that time the basement could not be renovated.

Ms Magon said the group was in "complete limbo" and had to rent another space which meant spending money on two properties at the same time.

Rachel Lockett's daughter, who has autism, attended the The Hub by Aurora Family when she was unable to attend school.

She said it enabled her to "flourish".

"Getting out of the house and being able to trust in other adults... was a real key for reducing her anxiety and enabling her to get back out there again," she said.

"It was life-changing having an activity she felt safe doing because school became so traumatic for her that she used to be terrified to go anywhere."

Rachel Lockett's daughter attended The Hub by Aurora Family

Although Ms Magon had contents and business interruption insurance she said her insurers advised her to put the claim forward to Thames Water before putting in a claim "which would significantly increase our premiums".

A Thames Water spokesperson said: "We're very sorry that the Aurora Family Hub experienced internal sewer flooding, and we recognise the disruption this can cause to business."