A homeowner who says she has been financially impacted due to flooding in her garden has slammed the problem as “ridiculous”.

Jane Pullen, who lives in Radlett Road, Watford, says water swamps her and neighbours’ gardens every few years during very heavy rainfall, with the most recent flooding occurring at the end of January.

Mrs Pullen said her garden was filled with water 2-3ft deep at the start of February and had only started to dry up just over a week later.

While flooding like this does not occur too often in Mrs Pullen’s garden, she said: “It’s unnecessary and it has ruined so much.

“Because of incidents like this it has pushed our insurance premiums up, so we are financially impacted.”

She also said that her workshop and garage at the back of the garden have been flooded so many times that they need “knocking down”.

Mrs Pullen said flooding occurs when rainwater in nearby Link Road is channelled into a ditch, which she says fills with water and then goes across neighbours’ gardens before going into her’s.

Mrs Pullen is urging Hertfordshire County Council to fix the problem and has called for the ditch to be removed.

She said: “We want them to do something about this problem. We want them to stop the water being directed into our garden, it’s ridiculous.”

A spokesperson from the county council said its flood investigation team have visited the site and believes that the flooding is being caused by a combination of high-water levels in the River Colne and high groundwater levels, both caused by the recent wet weather.

They said: “This sort of flooding is a very difficult problem to resolve and there is no immediately obvious solution. Recent wet weather had caused a number of flooding problems across the county, and we are investigating and monitoring these.”