Residents are demanding action to end 37-year drainage problems which see sewage flood on to their properties, leaving residents unable to wash or flush the toilet.

In the last 12 months, eight homes in Dean Field Road and four properties in Tilbury Lane have had their driveways, garages and gardens awash with toilet paper, excrement and condoms on five separate occasions.

The sewer discharges means residents of 70 homes in Dean Field Road, Broad Close, Eynsham Road and Owlington Close are unable to flush their toilet or wash for several hours without adding to the effluent.

Heather Smith, 63, a resident of Dean Field Road for 40 years, said: "It's a nightmare. Everything that is flushed down the toilet appears on our property when it rains.

"It's a blight on our lives."

Sewage burst into two homes through toilets in 1971 but to prevent a repeat residents now spring into action and lift manhole covers on properties to relieve the pressure.

Mrs Smith, who had to make a call from her hospital bed in 2006 to ask her neighbours to lift her manhole cover, added: "It has been going on so long it is constantly on your mind. Whenever there is a heavy rainstorm we know we are going to suffer."

Peter Bowell, a resident of Dean Field Road since 1969, said: "When it happens you can't shave, you can't use the shower and you can't flush the toilet because that material would come out on to the driveway of one of your neighbours."

"The frequency and the intensity of these incidents is increasing and we've had enough."

Thames Water spokesman Don Sharples, said: "We realise how distressing this is for the residents affected. There could be some misconnections between the highway drainage and the foul sewer drainage and we'll be meeting Oxfordshire County Council next week to see how we can solve the problems."