FOUR residents in Tilbury had a very wet start to the new year after a blocked drain flooded their homes.

The residents of Arkwright Road could only watch in disgust as filthy sewerage water seeped into their front rooms, and was soon two inches deep.

Debbie Bilton’s wooden floor is ruined, along with all her towels and bedding which she was forced to put down to protect the rest of the house.

The water also flooded a cupboard housing her electricity meter.

She said: “The floor in here will have to be ripped up and replaced, its ruined, it smells terrible as well.

“We are really angry with Anglian Water, the response has been too slow.

“We reported that the drains outside were blocked at 9am on Wednesday and it took them until the early hours of yesterday morning to come and look, they were only here about 15 minutes then they drove off saying it was sorted.

“Then at about 12pm the water started coming indoors, if they had done their job properly this wouldn’t have happened.”

Debbie said she and her neighbours called the water company all day on Thursday but no one came until around 2.30pm.

She added: “My daughter is really upset because I can’t let her come home when it is like this. I can’t wash or have a drink of water because it just makes it worse outside, and the water is coming out a chalky white colour.”

The water board eventually sent out a maintenance company to pump the water out of one of the four houses, which is home to a pensioner currently in hospital.

Neighbour Suzy Hornsby said the same four houses get flooded whenever there is heavy rain.

She added: “The drains in the street are on the same level as the pavements, and because the houses are old and subsiding our front gardens slope downwards, so whenever it rains all the water runs down into our homes, it’s not good enough.”

Anglian Water spokesman John Clere said that cooking fat caused the drains to block.

He said: An Anglian Water spokesman said: "We are very sorry for the distress suffered by the residents of Arkwright Road and we are also sorry if they feel our response on this occasion was too slow.

"The flooding was caused by a build up of fat in the sewer. This was the result of people tipping cooking oils and grease down the drains, something sewers are not designed to deal with.

"In this case our technicians have now identified and removed an old odour trap, or interceptor, which they believe was placed into the sewers sometime in the 1930s.

"The removal of this trap should help prevent a repeat of the flooding on Arkwright Road in the future."