ANGRY residents could only watch and hope as water rose within an inch of flooding their Redbourn homes during Tuesday's torrential downpour.

And the flooding caused a rising tide of anger as developers and St Albans District Council all refused to take responsibility for a broken drain believed to have caused the problem.

Gardens and garage floors were swamped under eight inches of water and one home was flooded as firefighters fought to hold back the deluge.

Silk Mill Road residents, where houses cost up to £700,000, claim the problems have been known about for months and a bore hole drilled to relieve water pressure fails in the face of heavy rains.

The council and developers Wilcon Homes and Westbury Homes have been unable to agree liability for the drain.

Wilcon Homes issued a statement denying liability.

It said: 'A damaged storm drain on an adjacent housebuilder's development caused water surges which resulted in overflowing excess water.

'We are assured the adjacent developer is to take remedial action on the property concerned to remedy the situation.'

However, on-site neighbours Westbury Homes also denied liability. A spokesman said: 'We are concerned that this matter has not yet been satisfactorily resolved, but the responsibility for the maintenance of the storm drain lies elsewhere.'

Redbourn Parish Councillor Tony Swendell saw the bore hole spouting water four feet into the air during Tuesday's flood.

He said: 'This has got to be resolved for the residents' sake.

'The bore hole doesn't work and every time it rains water fires back up the pipe. The problem is an old culvert drain from the Snatchup Estate blocked midway between Silk Mill Road's two developers.

'No one wants to claim ownership of the pipe. Thames Water says it doesn't have responsibility for it and the negotiations between the developers and the district council have been going on for months.'

A district council spokesman said there would be an on-site meeting next week.

He added: 'At some point the drain will have to be dug out by hand. We won't know until then how long repairs will take or how much they will cost but it's not fair council taxpayers should foot the bill.'

Mr Lachman Bhojwani, whose kitchen and garden suffered the full force of the water, was also flooded out in January.

His wife had to watch helplessly as their garden furniture was swept along by the current.

Mrs Bhojwani said: 'You can see the mess it has made and we are just waiting for something to be done about cleaning it up.'

Neighbour Mr Shah Punil said: 'We only moved here in November, and this is the second flood we've had.

'Nothing was damaged, fortunately, but there was a lot of clearing up front and back.'