Residents of Blackwater are claiming that swarms of mosquitoes and flies are a legacy of the floods caused by torrential rain in July last year.

Wendy McCallum had to move out for six months after two inches of water flooded her home, and with Kingsway being near the Blackwater River she has called for measures to prevent a repeat.

But of more immediate concern is the insect plague, which started around May. Some people have had to visit their GPs after being bitten and one had to go to A&E.

Miss McCallum said she had sometimes been bitten four or five times a day, resulting in bumps the size of a 10p coin lasting up to three weeks.

She said: “I’m very ill and tired now. I am constantly being bitten.

“My neighbours are all the same and we are suffering with big red itchy bites.

“I have phoned Hart District Council and spoken with environmental health services twice now. Several of my neighbours have also complained.

“There were thousands on my window ledge inside my house the other day. We cannot open the windows in the summer to allow fresh air into our homes.

“My neighbour had to go to the doctor as her eye closed up, to be told of some virus that these insects are carrying.”

Silt in pipes

Hart District Council engineering manager David Goddard said: “It’s very complicated down there.

“There are several agencies involved in resolving the issue - Hampshire County Council’s highways department, Network Rail, Thames Water and the Environment Agency.

“There have been a couple of meetings with them and we are investigating the problem.

“Silt cleaning is needed to clear the pipes and we are currently sorting out who is responsible for what.

“The storms in July washed a lot of silt into the pipes but the flooding did not get to a level where people were at danger.”

Another Kingsway resident - Arleta Gorajek, who moved there last December - claimed she had been constantly bitten throughout July.

"Spray them"

She said: “I was bitten in the eye. It was swollen and I was given eye drops by the doctor, who confirmed that it was a mosquito bite.

“It’s constantly happening and two weeks ago it was unbelievable. There were hundreds of them and I was bitten eight or nine times.

“They bite in the same place. I want the council to spray them.

“I love my garden but I cannot go out there anymore. I was bitten five times last Thursday and I can’t even water my garden.

“I use a special cream to keep them away and I have an electric device in my house to prevent them from coming inside the house, but I can’t use this in the garden. I called environmental health’s pest control last week to try to get something done, but nobody has got back to me.”

Richard Haddad, Hart District Council’s commercial environmental health and licensing manager, said: “We mainly deal with public health pests such as rats, mice and cockroaches.

“We are not a country that suffers from malaria but it is becoming the ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes.

“Spraying a public area is never a good idea. It poses risk to the wildlife and public. An investigation into the situation is needed before anything like that can be done.”

Blackwater and Hawley Town Council chairman Cllr Adrian Collett was disappointed that a year after the flooding, there had been no conclusion as to why it happened, confusion as to who was responsible for repairs in the aftermath and a general lack of feedback to residents.

He said: “It isn’t the first time it has flooded and it has been a year since the floods of July 20, 2007. The area flooded six or seven years ago and residents need to be reassured that it will never happen again. I hope that the authorities treat this seriously and get to the bottom of this.”