A TORRENT of water swept into homes, gardens and garages wreaking havoc in the early hours of Wednesday morning following a major leak from Three Valleys Water's treatment plant in Bushey.

This was the second serious leak from the Clay Lane Water Treatment Centre in the past ten years and was caused when one of the plant's water pumps failed.

Residents of Windmill Lane, opposite the site, raised the alarm after water began to appear from a door on the side of the plant's main building at around 12.15am.

People living in Windmill Lane and Clay Lane were then awoken by the noise of water cascading down their roads and rushing down their driveways.

Mr Ross Coward, 51, of Clay Lane, who lives at the lowest point of the two roads nearest the plant, received the full force of the water as it washed into his garage.

At its peak, the water was one metre deep and had lifted Mr Coward's car, a 1989 Subaru, off the floor, flooding the engine and the car's interior.

'The car is a write-off,' said Mr Coward, an engineer.

This was not the first time Mr Coward's property has been damaged by flood water from the plant, which in December 1992 wrote-off two cars, both parked in the garage which he shares with his neighbour Mr Michael Gilchrist, 60.

On this occasion the garage's foundations were also undermined and the garage had to be rebuilt.

Following Wednesday's flood, Mr Coward said: 'There is quite a bit of damage.

'I was at work last night when my wife rang me at about 1.10am. I came home and the fire brigade were already here pumping the water out from under the house and the garage.

'We have a double basement and there was about four or five inches of water under there. It is very distressing.

'I think there is about £10,000 worth of damage including the car.'

Mr Gilchrist said: 'We are really at the end of our tether. Three Valleys Water promised it had put in measures to stop this happening again. We are really fed up with it. Its promises are meaningless.'

Meanwhile, Mr Wayne Lang, 36, and his wife Gaby, 35, of Windmill Lane, who were preparing to move house next week, have been forced to unpack boxes of books and furniture which they had being storing in their garage to find out the extent of the water damage.

A spokesman for Three Valleys Water said: 'Shortly after the damage had been repaired our team on the site started visiting customers and assessing the damage. The matter of compensation will be dealt with by our loss adjuster.

'We now have to carry out a thorough investigation and are very concerned it has happened again and apologise to customers for the distress and inconvenience caused.'