It was only by chance that Maggie and Mick Cameron – landlord and landlady of the Red Lion at Fernhurst – were enjoying two days' break and were at home in Grailands Close.

"Otherwise we would have had even more of a disaster," said Maggie this week.

The couple were first alerted to a problem when their downstairs lavatory began to back up.

Flooding through

"I telephoned our insurers and they sent someone to deal with it,
but they didn't have any rods," said Mrs Cameron.

"The next day I noticed the water and sewage was beginning to seep into the alley on our premises from the road. But it was two days before anyone arrived to help.

"On Friday (January 22) it was literally an inch from the back door," said Mrs Cameron, "so I telephoned Southern Water for help and said it had to be done sooner rather than later."

At 11am water flooded through the door and Mrs Cameron called in
the fire service who helped pump out the water and salvage some of their property.

"All the carpets downstairs are damaged and the sewage and water has also gone into the conservatory," said Mrs Cameron.

"We don't know about the furniture yet."

Disinfected house

The couple, who will have to have their house disinfected before they can return, have taken refuge at the pub.

"It was absolutely pouring with rain, we tried to bail out for about two hours before we got any help.

" My husband was so upset because we have renovated the whole house and he has put so much work into it."

The couple claim if Southern Water had acted sooner their nightmare could have been avoided.

Mr Cameron told the Observer: "The reason we are in this mess is that Southern Water did not turn up when they said they would."

Sewer blocked

A spokesman for Southern Water said: "This incident was caused by a sewer blockage.

"Our crews cleared the blockage and visited the property to speak with the owners.

"Because of the wet weather our contact centre was inundated with calls on Friday and Saturday and some crews were unable to respond to jobs as quickly as customers would expect.

"We know internal flooding is extremely distressing, and we have every sympathy with those affected.

"We will be carrying out a CCTV survey of this sewer line to further investigate the cause of the blockage."

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