The estates were built with a private sewer system after the water company told their developer its network would not cope with the additional load.
“There’s babies on the estate, there’s older people,” Millard said. “Every time you flush the toilet the shower rises up. It’s just a nightmare.”
The private sewage system for the two estates involves huge underground holding tanks.
Waste from the roughly 60 homes goes into the tanks and is pumped into the public sewer at a controlled rate, or at off peak times, to avoid putting extra pressure on the system.
With the tanks unable to empty, residents are paying for tankers to come and suck out some of the sewage and drive it to a treatment works.
Resident Stuart Tyrrell said: “The tankers basically just buy us some time.
“We had 16,000 litres removed and it lasted probably four or five hours [before the system was full again].”
Recent heavy rain also left Thames Water’s sewage treatment works at capacity, so it had to stop accepting tankers.