A river of human waste has covered a road in Sevenoaks after a sewer overflowed - and this isn't the first time it's happened.

The blocked sewer in London Road, opposite Riverhead Library, has left the mess covering the road and crossing resulting in a foul smell, for the third time in the space of a month.

The problem was first reported to Sevenoaks District Council on Saturday, July 12 but residents were told that Thames Water would have to deal with the issue.

Five days after being contacted, Thames Water carried out a 'clean-up' on the area removing waste from the road.

After clearing the area on Thursday, July 17, on Saturday, July 19 and again on Sunday, July 27 the problem re-occurred, leaving footpaths covered in the foul smelling mess yet again.

Unhappy resident, Graham Lake, said: "It is absolutely disgusting, children are having to walk through this twice a day to get to and from school."

Thames Water carried out another clean-up operation last night, but despite their efforts the problem is still ongoing today.

After calling local authorities, Mr Lake was told that the water company would need to discuss the issue with the County Council as a wall is blocking the man-hole that needs to be accessed to fix the problem.

Sevenoaks District Council said it does not own the wall in discussion so it would not be able to assist Thames Water in resolving the issue.

A spokesman for the council said: “The wall in question is not owned or maintained by Sevenoaks District Council.

"We appreciate the difficulties faced in repairing the damaged sewer and understand Thames Water have all of the powers they need in order to remedy the situation.

"We would urge them to carry out the repair as quickly as possible to prevent local people and businesses being affected any further.”

A Thames Water spokesman said: “We sympathise with people affected by the overflowing sewer.

"We need to inspect the pipe to find out why it's happening but can’t get to it as the manhole which gives us access to the sewer has a wall built over it.

"We’re meeting with the County Council this week to discuss moving the wall but in the meantime we’ll send a team to clean up again.”