Residents have called on council bosses to fix a drainage problem which has dogged their road for almost a quarter of a century.
Eryl Lewis, who is 82, says she lives in fear every time it rains that her home in a quiet corner of Loose, near Maidstone, will be deluged with flood water.
She and her husband Clive, 85, have had to place sandbags outside their front door to prevent their property from being damaged.
The couple claim that Church Street becomes an “ice rink” in winter, posing a “serious” danger – with several falls in recent years – and in summer, algae appears, which is also slippery.
Mr Lewis said that the issue created a damp problem and he was forced to repaint the house.
The residents’ concerns were raised at the Kent Flood Risk and Water Management Committee on June 10 by local Restore Britain county councillor Bob Ford.
Mrs Lewis said: “It gets me down, to be honest. Every time it rains I’m looking out of the window to see if it’s going to get into the house.
“It’s embarrassing if people have to walk through a river when they come to visit. I just want it to be sorted out.”
The Lewises’ neighbour Derek Corbett, 67, said the problem started in the early 2000s when a pipe was laid at the top of Church Street at High Banks to connect with an existing one which takes spring water into the Loose stream close to the Lewises’ home.
This was to divert another spring which was rising into the roadway.
But rather than fix the problem, the work has plagued local householders ever since, claim the residents.
Mr Corbett said: “Every time it rains, water pours out of one of the manholes near the church and cascades down the narrow lane like a torrent.
“During heavy rain, the water level seriously risks breaching the shallow kerbs on both sides of Church Street and flooding the properties. The road has to be constantly repaired.”
He said KCC engineers have been out numerous times over the years and were “genuinely sympathetic”, but that “nothing seems to come of it”.
Mr Corbett said a “swimming pool” collects where Church Street ends.
Now they want urgent talks with Kent County Council (KCC) to discuss a separate, permanent drain to carry water away from High Banks and allow the existing pipes to continue to carry the spring discharge away as it did before.
Cllr Ford told the committee: “My constituents have had to deal with the flooding of their road for 25 years – yes, 25 years.
“The flooding happens every time it rains, summer time or winter time. This situation turns the road into a deadly ice hill in the winter months and the bottom of the road into a lake.
“Derek, who lives in the house at the bottom of the hill, watches the water level rise a little more up the kerb every year with the fear that his house will be flooded if this is not sorted.”
Cllr Ford said that the residents pay their council tax and have worked all their lives but “now feel abandoned” by the authorities.
Mr Corbett and the Lewises sat in the public gallery as their concerns were raised in the chamber.
At the committee meeting, senior KCC officer Carol Valentine confirmed that she had been in contact with Cllr Ford about the issue and was happy to continue the conversation.
She said: “We did meet when you (Cllr Ford) were first appointed and we had a conversation about this and I think you will recall that we had a number of solutions that had been looked into and that there were also financial implications.
“I think it is quite a complex problem…but we’re happy to continue having the discussions if needed.”
Cllr Ford said later: “I am glad that Carol Valentine is happy to continue the discussions and that she seems to be genuinely interested in taking this further. When we next meet, I’d like those residents who took the trouble to come to the committee to be there, too.
“They’re reasonable people, and they want to get this sorted out and stop having to worry all the time. I hope we have made a bit of progress.”
