A woman said she was forced to live with sewage running on to her property for months because of confusion between officials over whose responsibility it was.

And it was only when Rachel Howell, a mother of three, contacted the Advertizer that her four months of misery ended and the work was swiftly completed.

Rachel contacted Shropshire Council and Severn Trent Water in July when she discovered the drain was blocked outside her house along Gobowen Road in Oswestry.

She said: “The manholes surrounding our premises were full up with raw sewage and it continuously over-spilled on to our property because the drains were so blocked. The smell was horrific, especially in the summer.

“I reported this many times but was passed between Shropshire Council and Severn Trent Water – no-one was taking responsibility.

“Severn Trent Water was given a three-day permit in September but it was not followed through. I don’t know why it was taking so long.

“It’s sad you have to go through the Advertizer and scream and shout to get something done about it.”

Shropshire Council said it was aware of the situation but was not responsible for drainage in the area. Severn Trent Water was responsible, it said.

n Work finally took place last week to solve the problem – although the road outside the home needed to be dug up and caused problems for motorists. Traffic was queued back to the 40 mile per hour signs on the outskirts of Oswestry and drivers were faced with temporary traffic lights just a short distance from the main traffic lights, causing congestion both ways.

Gary Parton, Shropshire Council’s senior network manager, said: “Severn Trent Water is working to resolve the sewer flooding issue that has been ongoing.

“A permit was granted, on an emergency/urgent basis, for work to be done on October 16.

“Four-way temporary signals were required for the work to be completed. However, because of the traffic-sensitive location, Shropshire Council insisted the traffic signals were manually controlled to minimise disruption as much as possible.”

A Severn Trent spokesperson said: “We’re really sorry for the problems that have been caused in Gobowen Road.

“We had a team of engineers on site last week who identified an issue with the sewer pipe that was causing the problem.

“This section has now been replaced and we’re confident everything will be back to normal.

“We’d like to apologise for the disruption this has caused.”