Neighbours say they have been left in a bureaucratic limbo after trying to deal with a “horrendous stench” coming from drains outside their homes.

People living in Malvern Gardens, Queensbury, have had smelly water coming from a manhole in the pavement for a month.

They have complained to Thames Water about the leak but say more needs to be done to find the source of the problem.

Chandrakant Shah, 65, said: “It has just been horrible. We can’t open our windows because of the smell, its suffocating.

“I feel like we have been in limbo because of all the bureaucracy we have come up against. At the end of the day we just want it fixed.

“All our neighbours can’t bear the smell but we are also concerned about the health of our families because of the dirty water.”

Kanta Pindoria, 55, said: “My son has asthma and he struggles to breathe because of the smell. It goes all the way through the house.”

Dhiraj Bose, 60, said: “In the mornings it is horrendous and don’t even want to open your doors because of the stench.

“It is ridiculous it has taken over our lives now, we just want something to be done so it doesn’t happen again.”

Thames Water has sent maintenance crews to clear the excess water which has been seeping from the manhole and find the source of the leak.

But neighbours say water begins to come up from the manhole again just hours after crews have left.

A Thames Water spokeswoman said: “We’re sorry for these ongoing problems. An engineer will be heading to Malvern Gardens first thing tomorrow to investigate further as work carried out so far has not shown what the root cause is.

“We’ve had a tanker there today pumping sewage out of the manhole to stop it spilling onto the pavement or anyone’s property and we’ll continue to do this, as and when needed, until the problem is solved.”