RESIDENTS claim a 6ft earth mound in a secondary school grounds is flooding their gardens every time it rains.

Households in Ravensfield, Barstable, claim rain runs off the mound in the grounds of Basildon Lower Academy, next door, leaving their gardens under 6ins of water.

The school denies the claim, saying the area has always been boggy and water also sits on the school field.

Valerie Minns, 56, of Ravensfield, said: “We don’t feel comfortable anymore. We worry about sitting out in the garden, which is what we should be doing.

“It’s a constant battle all the time. It’s wearing me out.

“I wish I hadn’t moved here.”

Neighbour Colin Spence, 60, said: “My next door neighbour’s house was nearly flooded.

“If it’s really bad, like last year, it comes up to my patio.

“I paid for a new patio, only for it to be flooded.”

The grassy mound was built as a “green shield” to block views of the school when it moved to a new £45million building in 2009.

The builder planted hawthorn bushes at the request of the county council after neighbours reported the flooding and consider the matter resolved.

But Ravensfield residents claim water runs off the mound and through five neighbours gardens every time it rains.

Valerie and her husband Keith have to keep their plants in pots and their two-year-old staffie, Princess, cannot go out into the garden.

Mrs Minns, a retired accounts manager, said: “It runs through my garden like a river.”

They claim pupils used to stand on the mound and hurl abuse and missiles at the residents, once breaking a window, and stand behind it smoking, until the bushes were planted. The school denies the antisocial behaviour claims.

Doug Lawson, executive principal for the Basildon Academies, said: “My understanding is this mound was part of the landscaping required from the new school plans.

“It was supposed to be a green shield to shield people from having to look at a large building.

“A few years ago, when the same person reported the water, we referred it to the county council.

They asked the contractor to plant trees. We will not accept we are causing the flooding. It seems like a water plain from the school buildings.”