Residents fear raw sewage will continue to flood the back gardens of their Oxford homes unless Thames Water improves its pipes.

People living in Sandfield Road, Headington, believe the underground pipes overflowed because they could not take the extra pressure placed on them by the new private Manor Hospital, which opened in October.

Dr Margaret Rees, of Sandfield Road, a gynaecologist at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, said: "The Manor Hospital opened at the end of October and since early November four properties that I am aware of in this road have had sewage flooding into their gardens.

"I contacted Oxford City Council's environmental health officers, who have been putting pressure on Thames Water to clean it up."

She said Thames Water contractors carried out work to de-scale the sewer on Wednesday (December 14) and since then there had been no more floods.

"Our fears are that there are 65 flats at the Manor Hospital that are unoccupied, but once they are being used will the sewer overflow again? It is not much fun having faeces on your lawn."

Stephen Tall, the city council's member for Headington, said: "Residents urgently need to know that this problem has been solved for good.

"An apology from Thames Water wouldn't go amiss.

"We now need to know if the sewers can cope with the extra waste that keeps getting pumped out by the new hospital."

Andrew Boyd, a Thames Water spokesman, apologised for the problems.

He said the company had carried out a survey of the sewers to see what was causing the problems.

Mr Boyd added: "There were quite a few deposits of fat, grease and building materials, bits of rubble, brick and gravel, which had reduced the capacity of the sewer system.

"We have removed that and cleaned the system up.

"It was not caused by a lack of capacity, but by waste in the sewers."

A spokesman for the Manor Hospital said: "Local residents are of great concern to us, and we are more than happy to look into the issue of sewer capacity again."