Residents in Woodford Green are tired of seeing their shared garden and car park flooded with sewage water when there is heavy rain.

The owners of a shared housing block in Ash Way last week saw their ground floor car park and garden under a half metre of sewage water again - a problem which happens a few times a year.

The worst incident came in the summer of 2016 when there was a severe flood that resulted in more than four feet of water, damaging all the vehicles in the car park.

In June housing association Metropolitan Thames Valley (MTVH), which manages the property, set up an alarm system to notify residents when the flood water reaches a certain level and sends text alerts to some of them.

MTVH said: “We have made a number of investigations to establish the cause of this recurring flooding and are working hard to put a long-term solution in place for residents.

“It is a complex issue and we thank residents for their patience. In the meantime, we have installed a pump designed to assist the existing drainage system and mitigate flooding as much as possible.”

Fred Asllani, who bought his flat in 2016, said MTVH needs to do more to permanently fix the problem particularly as their service charges go up every year.

He said: “They should have never built in that site if they knew this was going to happen so often.

“It’s really frustrating because we love the flat and the area and my nine-year-old son can never play in the garden because it’s always full of sewage water and it just smells awful.”

Planning permission for the site was rejected twice in 2008 but permission was granted in March 2012.

Michael Ray, who has lived there since 2017, said: “Before they built this place local residents protested and said the area constantly gets flooded but that was overturned.

“My main concern now is that no one will be able to sell their flats when the time comes.”

The site is just on the other side of the River Roding which suffered catastrophic flooding in 2000 which inundated around 400 homes, causing damage that cost tens of thousands of pounds to repair.

The Environment Agency has warned that, due to the effects of climate change, the river could pose a threat to 2,600 homes by the year 2080.