Forty-six-year-old Jennifer Taylor, of Springfield Avenue, says despite the downfall lasting just an hour on Sunday night, the water appeared in the three gardens 'as if the floodgates had opened'.

Mystery surrounds the reason the houses are so vulnerable to the heavy rain but work to clear the drains carried out around three years ago has not helped, say the residents.

"Every time it rains we think to ourselves 'here we go again'," said Jennifer. "It doesn't even have to rain hard but if a lot of rain falls we know we can expect flooding."

She says the problem has been going on for 'decades' and her neighbours even have pictures from the 1970s of swans floating down their road –– but she claims was not told about it when she moved into the council home, which she now owns, eight years ago.

"Every time we ring up the council I think they must think 'oh well, it's an act of God', but surely something should be getting done when it keeps happening to us," she told Chad. "We've told them to send someone to clean up this time –– it's not hygienic."

Torrent

Jennifer told Chad that affected residents had been provided with sandbags, but she said they failed to stop the torrent of water entering their homes –– although she escaped serious damage this time after installing a new door.

Neighbour Elaine Carney (62) fared much worse in the downpour but she says Bolsover District Council, which owns the property, has told her she cannot have her doors replaced.

Said Elaine: "We've had two carpets ruined by the flooding so we just don't bother now –– we've got carpet tiles instead but the water came so quickly I didn't even have time to save those.

"It's about time they did something about it. They did something to the drains three years ago and we were told it would never happen again. I don't know what they need to do but they need to do something –– it's not right that we keep having to go through all this."

On Monday, Bolsover district councillor Ken Walker visited the homes and a team was sent out to clean up debris left on the road after the flooding. Yesterday a clean up crew was due to be sent out to deal with the mess in the houses, while Derbyshire County Council says it will also be looking into the situation.

Said a spokesman: "An emergency planning officer will speak to the residents to establish the cause and see if it is something we can help them with."