Raw sewage in her home and possessions destroyed: Shrewsbury woman's house floods five times in one year

Vickie Thomas, who lives in Pontesbury, had not yet recovered from the last time her house flooded in September, before it happened again on Saturday – the fifth time in just one year.

She lives in Station Road with her two sons, aged eight and 11, and said her house and garden becomes filled with raw sewage from the floods. She claimed Severn Trent Water does not want to help.

Vickie said the flooding happens when sewage overflow chambers on her road become too full and burst the pipes, not just when there is excessive rainfall.

“We are being flooded out and Severn Trent are not doing anything about it,” Vickie said. “I’ve got raw sewage floating about my house.

“For the last 13 months, if we have enough rain, the sewers flood our house out. We have reported it each time. Engineers have come out but they said it was not flooded at the time they were there so there was nothing they could do.”

“It has got to the point now where I have given up.

“I have got two kids in the house and one of them has really bad asthma. We were flooded on Saturday and then before that was the 24th September so we were just recovering from that one.

“You can imagine the smell. Even now in the back yard there is still human waste on the floor. We are left to clean it up each time.

“Severn Trent just do not care. I can’t even get contents insurance.

“The first time it flooded was 20 September 2018. Then again in February 2019, then June and then September and again on Saturday. The fire brigade were out yesterday for over three hours just pumping water out.”

Vickie said she dreads the weather forecast and leaving her house on rainy days for fear of returning to a flooded house.

A Severn Trent spokesperson said: “We completely understand Ms Thomas’s frustrations and fully appreciate how devastating experiencing flooding can be.

“We worked with the previous owner at the property on installing flood mitigation, and since then changes have been made to the property’s drains. We’ll now work with Ms Thomas on putting more protection in place to help prevent any further flooding following heavy rain in the area.”

“We are in daily contact with Ms Thomas, and will be doing everything we can to help protect her home from flooding. We will also have teams in the area tomorrow installing equipment to prevent further flooding.”