A DISGRUNTLED resident is calling on Anglian Water to cough up compensation after she spent £10,000 fixing damaged caused by flooding.

Sarah Yapp, of Lifstan Way, Southchurch, believes faulty pipes and pumps managed by Anglian Water resulted in the damage to her home.

She had water under her floorboards, replaced floor joists, had rising damp up her chimney breast and a waterlogged garden until the water company fixed pipes outside her house in February.

Since the remedial work, she says the problems in her house have evaporated, but Anglian Water is only taking responsibility for the damage caused to the road – not inside Ms Yapp’s house.

She said: “I’ve spent a lot of money trying to put things right, but there is still damage.

“It is like living in a pigsty because of the damage the water has done.”

Ms Yapp and other Lifstan Way residents met in August last year to discuss a joint compensation package because of the damage they say a faulty valve in a storm drain was causing.

Anglian Water admitted last summer the damage to the road – including a large puddle even in dry weather – was caused by the drain. The road was dug up in February and since then Ms Yapp has not experienced any water damage, but Anglian Water is refusing to take responsibility.

Ms Yapp added: “It’s no coincidence that since the road was fixed we haven’t had a problem.

“Given all the recent flooding on Victoria Road you would’ve thought it would do the same here, but it didn’t, we stayed dry.

“The water in our homes was obviously caused by the same problem, but Anglian Water just treat us like idiots.”

AnglianWater said the work in February was carried out with Southend Council highways and involved minor checks of a valve.

A spokesman for the company said: “Earlier this year we commissioned an independent assessor to look at the cause of damp in Ms Yapp’s property and two other properties on that street.

The first report was inconclusive, therefore we commissioned a second independent report, again at our cost, to try and determine the cause.

“The second assessor has been out to visit the properties, but the official report has not yet been completed or provided.”