A WATER leak left running into a man’s garden for more than a year despite a series of visits from Thames Water has driven him to take legal action.

Richard Haines, 42, of Upshire Road, Waltham Abbey, said that half the plants in his garden have died in his waterlogged garden and that he had given up on Thames Water ever fixing the problem after their engineers repeatedly failed to locate the source of the leak.

He added: “In February last year I noticed my grass was dyding at the side of my garden. I looked at it and there was a leak. They came down to fix it and damaged my fence although they came back to mend it.

“They said they’ve got a leak on the road but they can’t find it. Then they said it was coming from Pick Hill which is ages away. I’ve been fobbed off. I told them it’s a good job it’s not a gas leak or half of Waltham Abbey would’ve blown up by now.”

“There’s water coming out all the time. I kept reporting it and since then they’ve done ten or 12 hours there. They even sent me a letter saying it had been completed, but it’s not.

After so many fruitless calls to Thames Water, Mr Haines said he was now considering legal action against the company.

“All I’ve asked of Thames Water is for them to fix it, I’ve never wanted compensation, but now I’m going to get a legal team, “ he said. “It’s like dealing with children. They’ve failed totally to address any of my concerns, and they don’t seem to care. I’ve just received my water bill and it contains a leaflet saying ‘save water for Africa’. That’s a very worthy cause but they don’t seem to care about saving water here.

“It’s killed the plants in the garden, it’s killed trees, it’s killed the shrubs- the whole of one side of my garden. The water’s coming out and you can’t run a lawnmower across it. It’s no good. It’s a year down the line and the leak is still going.”

A spokeswoman for Thames Water said: “We have been trying to identify the cause of the seepage by checking the surrounding area for leaks, making necessary repairs and then going back to Mr Haines's garden to see if the seepage stops.

"We have so far carried out 12 repairs on the network, none of which have stopped the seepage.

"We understand that this may be frustrating for Mr Haines and we are continuing to investigate. Unfortunately, in cases such as these, we have to use a process of elimination until we find the problem."