HOMES in a Lydney road were hit by raw sewage as drains backed up on Christmas Eve, unable to cope with torrential rain.

One couple had to wait until yesterday (Tuesday) for water company Severn Trent to visit their sewage-hit home in Lakeside Avenue again.

Severn Trent has apologised and said the problems were caused by a pumping station being flooded – but they are looking at ways of preventing that in future.

Rachel Parsons says her the ground floor of her parents’ home was under about a foot of water with raw sewage.

Large areas of the Forest were flooded on Christmas Eve with parts of the A48 unpassable and the clubhouse at Lydney Rugby Club under water for the second time in a year.

Ms Parsons said about five homes in Lakeside Avenue were affected by sewage.

She said a problem with the drains was reported before the Christmas Eve rain and Severn Trent came out and unblocked it.

But she said that there had been no response to further calls about the sewage problem and was told to ring yesterday (Tuesday).

She said: “There was sewage in the house, in the garden and on the driveway – the smell is horrific.”

“There was about a foot of water in the house – the laminate literally floated and the stair carpet was ruined.

“No amount of cleaning they can do is doing anything, they need help but they have had none.

“The Christmas tree went over in the water and we had to make sure the gifts were upstairs.

“It was like something out of an horrific comedy film.”

She said there were problems with three drains on Lakeside Avenue and a stream behind the houses also broke it banks.

Ms Parsons said: “The drain started overflowing, so mum pulled up the covers. She could see they were blocked so she called Severn Trent and they came out quickly and unblocked.

“Before the stream broke its banks, the sewage drains started bubbling up so she called again and was told it was a priority but they didn’t turn up.

“If they could have done that it might not have been as bad.”

A spokeswoman for Severn Trent said: “A Severn Trent spokesperson said: “We’d like to apologise again for the issues caused by the extremely heavy rainfall last week.”

“The sheer volume of rain caused issues with the nearby pumping station after the station was flooded by the nearby brook causing a total loss of power.

“This has now been fixed, so everything is operating as normal again.

“Our teams have been in contact with the customers and we are visiting the property again today (Tuesday).

“Again, we’re really sorry for any issues caused, we know that any type of flooding is deeply distressing. “Going forward we’re looking at ways we can protect the pumping station from flooding to prevent this happening again.”