Dalehurst Road flood

At 6am on Tuesday water was flowing up through a drain and flooding along the road. By late morning the pressure of water meant it burst up through cracks and was pushing the pavement up, and homeowners were disturbed by rushing sounds in their tanks.

Residents attempted to call South East Water immediately but were met with an automated reply advising them opening hours began at 8pm.

They telephoned a number of times to complain about the flood and then waited for engineers to come out.

Josephine Brennan said: "We are getting nowhere at all. We are annoyed. It is just the sheer frustration of it - where are these people?"

Neighbour James Field thought the problem was a burst mains pipe and described South East Water's response as "diabolical".

Resident Janet Norman also said she had telephoned South East Water and hours later was waiting for them to show up and tackle the flood.

By 2pm they felt the water levels in the drains just outside their homes were rising and the rumbling sound of rushing water was growing stronger all the time.

Josephine commented: "What the hell do we pay for these things for?"

A South East Water spokesman said: "This was first reported to us at 9.44pm this morning. We had an inspector on site at 1.30pm.

Unfortunately we have had one of those days where we have had a large number of emergencies and we have had to prioritise our work and go to those instances where there could be flooding to property and substantial damage."

He added: "We apologise to the residents of Dalehurst Road for any inconvenience caused and we are trying to get to it as quickly as we can."