Concerned residents whose street was flooded with sewage earlier this year fear history may repeat itself as sewage pipes at a nearby care home appear to have been incorrectly connected to the storm drains on the residential street.

Neighbours living in Gladstone Rise in High Wycombe have watched sewage float along their street numerous times this year after the drains became blocked and forced the waste out.

While sewage has not appeared in the street since Thames Water cleared the drains in June, residents say they are still plagued with a foul smell and fear it is only a matter of time until the problem resurfaces again.

It is believed the sewage pipes at Maria Residential Home, in Kendall’s Close, were connected directly to the storm drains when builders carried out renovation work at the beginning of this year.

Thames Water say it served a notice to care home management ordering them to reconnect the drains, however when an engineer visited on Friday last week correction work had not been carried out.

Speaking on behalf of Gladstone Rise residents, Martin Clark, said: “Earlier in the year the care home undertook some building work to convert a garage in to wash room, which backs on to Gladstone Rise, but only to install such plumbing from the wash room directly in to the storm drain.

“Over a period of time the residents started to notice raw sewage flowing out of the storm drain covers and down the road.

“If a dog owner, which I am, lets their pet foul the pavement and doesn’t clean it up they will end up paying a fine, so why can a registered care home foul a storm drain that is not suitable for such waste.”

Jawad Ahmad, of Maria Residential Home, insisted Tames Water had seen the plans and given them permission to carry out the pipework.

He said: “We applied for permission from Thames Water and then worked with a company contracted by them.

“At this stage we are not sure what is happening. We contacted them and they did not get back to us, the next thing we heard was when you got in contact with us.

“The engineer came round yesterday and she said he was surprised Thames Water gave us permission. We can’t work on the road until we have received permission.

“They are going to follow it up with Thames Water, they have told us to wait.”

A spokesman for Thames Water said they are looking through their records to establish if they did receive an application from the care home.

According to the utility company, thousands of misconnections are discovered throughout the region every year, and its specialists advise property owners on how to rectify the issue.

If a property owner does not correct the plumbing then the case will be “escalated” to the environmental protection team, who will serve another notice.

Spokesman for Thames Water, Becky Trotman, said: “Misconnections happen when private pipe work is incorrectly plumbed into the drainage system, meant only for rainwater, instead of the foul sewage system.

“This can lead to dirty water from toilets and appliances like dishwashers and washing machines ending up in watercourses and the environment instead of the sewage works where it belongs.

“To avoid misconnections it’s really important that anyone having extensions built or carrying out plumbing work knows exactly where their wastewater is heading.”