For more than 10 years, people living in six bungalows on St Audrey's Lane have suffered overflowing manholes in their gardens and excess water blocking their toilets every time it rains heavily.

But now thanks to a new directive which came into force on April 1, the residents can apply for up to £1,000 of compensation from Anglian Water.
The new law was highlighted in a meeting of the district council's Overview and Scrutiny Panel (OVS) on Tuesday (April 8), which has been looking into the problem for residents after a 26-signature petition was presented to them.

Cllr Jonathan Gray, chairman of the OVS, said: "The main message from us to residents is to be aware there is this new legislation.
"If we can get enough residents clued up on what's going on, Anglian Water could be paying out literally thousands of pounds a year to several residents."

The Water Supply and Sewage Service Regulation 2008 states that should sewage enter a building the service provider must pay the customer £1,000 or the sum of their sewage charges, whichever is lesser, each time it happens.

It also says that should sewage enter the land of a property the provider must pay the customer 50 per cent of their sewage rate or £500, whichever is less, every time it happens.

St Audrey's Lane resident of 11 years John Sayer presented the original petition, which included six bungalows on Pig Lane which suffer similar problems. He explained the last time he was effected was January 16 when his toilet overflowed.

From 1974 to 1996, Huntingdonshire District Council managed the sewers, but since then Anglian Water has taken over running all public adopted sewers, including the combined sewers which take both foul and surface water from St Audrey's Lane.

A spokeswoman for Anglian Water said: "We're quite happy to get together with other parties and see jointly what can be done for St Audrey's Lane. It is a difficult situation and we do sympathize, but we do keep our infrastructure up and running. We need to build up a better picture of this, and find out what the critical factors are, but there's no one answer."