KESGRAVE: Furious residents of a quiet street are today losing patience after their homes were flooded yet again.

A water main in Padstow Road has burst several times in the past, and yesterday residents were faced with the same predicament, as a large pool of water spread to their properties.

Although the water is clean, once it has passed through sandy soil, it can leave a serious mess – and there have been occasions when it has got mixed with raw sewage, leaving an unhealthy mess in its wake.

Heidi Haighton, who has lived in the road for seven years with her husband Sean and two children, said the bursts were a regular feature of life for residents.

She said: “If you look at the road there are all these little patches where contractors have gone down and fixed the pipe. That does the job for a time, but a few months later it bursts somewhere else. We need a new water main along here. We’ve contacted Anglian Water regularly, but all we get are these running repairs.”

Mrs Haighton said water sometimes gets into the bungalows. She added that Anglian Water have paid for her to have a new boiler and a new hob after they were water-damaged.

“This just keeps happening. It is frustrating because we know that if ever we wanted to move it would make it difficult to sell our home.”

Her neighbour Jackie Cooper was also angry about the regular flooding and was irritated by the fact that Anglian Water did not supply bottled water immediately.

She said: “The water is only available if you are registered with them for medical reasons. We can’t use our toilets or anything. It is dreadful.”

She has kept a record of bursts at her property – there were three incidents in September 2009 and another in November the same year.

In recent months local MP Dr Dan Poulter has battled with Anglian Water over problems his constituents in Daimler Drive off Lovetofts Drive have faced.

He said he would be contacting the Kesgrave residents to see if he could help them. “Anglian Water does need to realise the impact on people’s lives that problems like this can have,” he said.

A spokesman for Anglian Water said: “We are very sorry to hear about the problems faced by the residents. We heard about the burst at 9.20am and sent contractors to repair a three inch water main.”

He said the company had had reports of two incidents in September and November 2009 in the area.

He added that bottled water would normally be supplied to people after their supply had been cut off for 12 hours unless they were on a register of vulnerable people in which case they would be supplied immediately.

Are you a resident suffering similar problems? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.