Two local residents have hit out at developers who built houses behind their property and caused extensive flooding issues.

Mr and Mrs Ward live next to the Creeks Close development in Frogmore, which was built by Hastoe Housing Association, and for the last nine months they have been beset by flooding.

Mrs Ward said: “During storms, the right-hand side of the property and the stables always got a bit damp, but now, every time it rains, the water rises up at our back door and comes into our living room.

“Our wooden floors, which I put down over a few months in December 2015, are now lifting and moving because of the water damage.

“We have a dehumidifier running and in October last year I was up from Saturday morning to Monday night trying to stop the water coming in with towels, tea towels, even laundry, just to try and keep the water out.”

Explaining the problem, Mrs Ward said that before the development, the water used to run off the field, along their bank to the rear of the property and out onto the road.

Now, the developers have dug into the bank and put up fences, meaning the water now comes through the bank, through the wall at the back of their garden, across the garden and in their back door.“We’ve written letters to South Hams District Council and Hastoe, we’ve spent hours and hours on the phone, no one helps, Hastoe doesn’t even call back.“The only person who has given us any practical help is South Hams Councillor Julian Brazil, who has sourced sandbags for us, which are now at our back door, and Garry Elliott, chair of the Frogmore and Sherford Parish Council, who visited the house after a night of rain to see the damage for himself, and then notified those who he thought could help us.”

A builder has dug a trench around the property in an attempt to relieve the problem, and Mr Ward had a water pump that they have to turn on every time it rains. The trench is around a foot deep and circles the entire left hand side of the house.

The trench isn’t pretty and the water runoff is now causing the bungalows below the Ward’s house to begin to have flooding issues.

Their house was the old Devon police house, built in 1932, and Mr and Mrs Ward have lived there for 36 years. They say they do not object to the development, but they want their flooding issue sorted out.

“If we had owned that field” explained Mr Ward, “we probably would have built houses on it too, it makes sense and we do need more houses in the area, but we would have sorted the drainage out first.

“They’ve raised the level of the ground up. When it was a field, if a tractor drove past, you couldn’t be able to see the rear wheels over the bank, now if a car drives past on the new level, they can see straight down into our garden, that’s how much the ground level has been changed.

“They’re planning to build more houses to the left of the development and It’s just going to create more problems.”

A spokesperson for Hastoe Housing Association said: “We are aware that the building of new affordable homes above Creeks Close has been causing rainfall to run-off towards Mrs and Mrs Ward’s house, and that, on occasions when the rain is exceptionally heavy, part of their house has flooded.

“We are very sorry about this, and our engineers and contractors have been working with Devon County Council and the District Council for some time now to try to agree how best to stop this from happening again.

“At a meeting we held at Creeks Close, we reached a verbal agreement with both Devon County Highways and the District Council to dig a grass ditch to reroute floodwater away from the house – which would effectively reinstate the drainage that naturally occurred before the new affordable homes were built.

“Unfortunately, in the last week, the District council have changed their minds and asked us to install a much more complicated solution, which would involve digging a 300-metre trench across the public road, and through a private road and field, and laying plastic drainage pipes in the trench.

“This solution will take longer than our preferred natural ditch, and involve more inconvenience for more people during the work to dig the trench and lay the pipes. In addition, we would have to negotiate permission with the landowner to dig a trench and run the drainage pipe though their private land.

“We have asked the District Council to reconsider their decision urgently as we wish to start on the works as soon as possible.

“We are continuing to work for a permanent resolution for Mr and Mrs Ward and, once again, we are very sorry for distress that the flooding has caused them.”

A spokesperson for South Hams District Council said: “In accordance with our statutory responsibilities, all planning applications are reviewed to make sure that they incorporate a drainage scheme that satisfies current guidelines and technical standards.

“The construction and implementation of the scheme is the responsibility of the applicant. We have been made aware of the drainage concerns surrounding this development and this case is currently under investigation by our enforcement team.”