A group of villagers who have campaigned for mains sewage for 40 years say the rising cost of seeing their wish come true is turning into a nightmare.

Following the campaign to replace the current septic tank system, work finally started this year to lay mains pipes in Milton Common, near Thame.

Villagers paid £1,860 each to Thames Water - a total of £80,000 - and thought they would be connected as far as their boundaries. They always knew that connections into the houses would have to be done by outside contractors.

But Mike Walker, speaking for residents, said: "The costs are spiralling all the time. We understood the £1,860 was to bring the sewage system right up to our boundaries.

"But now we have been told we have to pay around another £1,000 to get the pipes laid from the mains pipe to the boundaries. And then it will cost us around another £2,000 to connect our homes. This is a real nightmare."

A spokesman for Thames Water said the agreement had been just that the mains pipe would go into the village.

Villagers in Moreton, Thame, and at Little Haseley are being put on mains sewage for nothing.

The spokesman said: "Properties which are deemed to be causing a public health hazard can go on the mains without charge.

"Little Haseley and Moreton were so deemed after careful scrutiny of the circumstances. Milton Common did not fit the bill."