Chinnor family face 'five-year wait' for Thames Water flooding fix

Ali Anning said Thames Water had told her that work to fix the flooding problems might need to wait until 2026

A mother-of-three whose garden has been deluged with sewage has been told her family might have to wait up to five years to have the problems resolved.

Ali Anning, from Chinnor in Oxfordshire, said Thames Water has told her work would not be done until 2026 despite her toilets and showers being unusable in downpours.

A water consumer watchdog said the delay was "clearly not right".

Thames Water said some work would start in the area "early next year".

Mrs Anning said flooding problems started at her house about a year ago. Her family's washing machine, toilets and showers were unusable on 28 September and 2 October after heavy rainfall.

"We were stuck in the house with three children not able to use anything. The smell was horrendous, absolutely horrendous," she said.

Mrs Anning said the smell caused by the flooding was "absolutely horrendous"

The water company told her it expected work to improve infrastructure in the area to take until 2026, she said.

She added: "I said to them: 'In the meantime, you expect us, if there's heavy rain, to not be able to use our toilets, not be able to use showers, not be able to walk outside our house without having to wade through excrement?' And the woman said 'yes', and confirmed that is the case.

"They cannot be allowed to do this."

Mrs Anning has complained to the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), which has contacted Thames Water on the family's behalf.

Steve Grebby, CCW's policy manager, said: "It's clearly not right that they should turn their back on [Mrs Anning] and expect that they should wait without any support until the problems are solved."

The Consumer Council for Water's Steve Grebby said it was "clearly not right" to expect Mrs Anning to wait so long for the problems to be fixed

In a statement, Thames Water apologised for the "extremely unpleasant" sewer flooding.

It said it would start work on Chinnor's sewer network "to improve [its] capacity and effectiveness" early next year.

In a statement, the company said: "This may take some time and there are no quick fixes for this problem, but we're also looking at other ways to tackle the root cause of the issue, such as preventing groundwater getting into the sewer.

"In the meantime we arranged for our engineers to fully clean any areas affected by the flooding."