A HORRIFIED mum watched in disbelief as a torrent of raw sewage flooded the back garden of her Blackburn home.

The waste water, being pumped away from the nearby Barratts estate at Feniscowles Bridge, gushed into the rear of Janet Ward's detached house in Livesey Branch Road after backing up from a blockage in a nearby public sewage pipeline.

Mrs Ward said: "It was absolutely disgusting. The water was several inches high and ran into our fish pond.

"We will have to wait and see whether it affects the fish.

"I have had to take my three-year-old daughter Ashleigh to my mum's while it is cleared up. The whole house stank."

Mrs Ward, whose husband Keith is a plumber, said council workmen arrived to clear up the mess but left after a couple of hours at the scene.

She is furious that they left her home mid-way through the clean-up operation.

She said: "I was left a bottle of Jeyes fluid and that was it."

A spokesman for Blackburn Council confirmed the problem had been caused by a blockage in the North West Water owned public sewer pipe in Langdale Road.

He added: "As their agents, we went out to investigate and cleared the blockage.

"Two other properties were also affected, but not as badly as Mrs Ward because she lives at the bottom of the hill."

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