AN apology has been issued to an East Oxford grandma whose homelife has been made a misery by overflowing drains.

The smelly effluent started leaking into Gillian Martin’s garden from her drains almost three months ago.

Mrs Martin, 65, a council tenant who lives in Nye Bevan Close, said she had repeatedly called the Town Hall about the leak, but nothing had been done.

The grandmother said: “It’s disgusting. All this slime is coming into my garden. This has been going on for almost three months. The council was supposed to be coming down, but they haven’t.

“The smell of it is coming through to the kitchen – it smells like rotten eggs, and my garden and shed has been infested with rats.”

But now, after the Oxford Mail contacted Oxford City Council, work is expected to begin on Tuesday to repair the drains.

Mrs Martin explained that her grandchildren have been unable to play outside and the stinking , overflowing drains had attracted rats.

She said exterminators had been in several times to deal with the rat problem, but the vermin were still present.

Mrs Martin lives with her daughter Lucy and her children Jessica, 10, Jazmin, seven, and six-year-old Jaynee.

Miss Martin, 30, said: “It’s horrible for the kids because they can’t go out and play, and when they come down to have their breakfast the stench of rotten drains is everywhere.

“The smell comes into the house and it’s not nice at all.

“You phone the council up and they say they will let someone know about it, but nothing happens. The rat man has been out, but he said the rats are actually feeding off the stuff and that’s why we can’t get rid of them.”

Oxford City Council spokesman Eva Oliver said: “We are sorry to hear about Ms Martin’s issue.

“The repairs to the leaking drain have been scheduled to take place on Tuesday. “This work is scheduled to last one or two days. It will involve digging up and repairing a leaking drain located between two properties, to ensure the drains of this property are back to its usual standard.

“We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Thames Water spokesman Natalie Slater said: “We did attend back in December to advise, but we arranged for an engineer to go back yesterday to help the customer arrange for it to be cleared.”