A DEEP pool of stinking sewage outside a block of flats cut off access to dozens of garages for THREE days, for the third time.

People living in the building in Gardner Close, Wanstead, had to wade through up to ten inches of sewage to reach their cars and garages after the drain became blocked again.

Rosie Hayward, 28, said: “It started coming up on Saturday morning.

“It was at least ankle-deep and it absolutely stinks.

“Anyone that went down there had to wear Wellington boots just to get to their car, it’s ridiculous. My car is brand new, so if anything has happened to that I’m going to go mad.

“Fortunately I’ve got a couple of days off work so I didn’t need my car, but I didn’t want to touch my garage, it’s that bad.

“I recently had new door stops put on the garage to stop people breaking in, and they’re probably ruined.

“It shouldn’t have taken this long, if we didn’t complain as much as we did it wouldn’t have been sorted out even now.

“It’s not our job as residents to be ringing up different people and hassling them to come down and fix it.”

Dawn Crimmins, 68, said it was the third time in as many years that sewage had flooded the garages.

She said: “It’s disgusting and it smells. I have to keep the windows in my living room and the vents in my bedroom closed all along, it was that bad.

“It’s got to be an underlying problem because it’s happened twice before. It’s so frustrating because you never know where to go for help.

“What’s the point of having an out-of-hours number if they still haven’t sorted the problem four days after you report it?”

After Thames Water began removing the sewage on Tuesday, a spokeswoman said: “Our engineer is inspecting the public sewer to see if there are any blockages or obstructions, and to ascertain if it is a problem with the public sewer or the private drainage system.”