NEIGHBOURS in a village street fled their homes to escape rising flood waters last night.

For the second time in six days cottages in Church Green, Kirkburton, were left under waist-high water.

It is not yet known exactly how the quaint street became flooded, but residents are blaming Kirklees Council work on a culvert nearby.

Jayne Horton has lived at 2 Church Green for 11 years. She said in all that time the street had never flooded.

She added: "I came home from work at about 5.50pm yesterday to find the street under water.

"There had been some flooding last Thursday, but nothing like this.

"We have still not been told exactly what the cause is, but it cannot be the rain as this has never happened before.

"The fire brigade have been working hard all night to pump the water out. They have been brilliant, but we have had no word from the council."

Liz Greenwood and David Utasi moved to Church Green just two months ago. They chose their new home because of the picturesque beck which runs alongside it.

But last night what is normally a trickle of water rose by more than 5ft.

Liz said: "We saw the water rising and quickly moved all our furniture upstairs, but very quickly we were surrounded by floodwater.

"We had to climb along a wall and up through the wood to escape.

"We went to stay at my parents' house and this morning we have come back to find our home in a terrible state.

"I am convinced the floods last night and those last week are connected to the council work."

David said Kirklees staff had visited the beck in the days leading up to the flood.

He said: "We have had council people here looking at the beck a few times in the last week.

"Now we are told not to remove the sandbags in case the water levels rise again.

"Our house is a mess, the electrics are ruined and we cannot continue like this."

The first firefighters went to the scene yesterday teatime - and two crews have been there all night, trying in vain to pump thousands of gallons of water away.

Crew Manager Mark Hurd, of Huddersfield fire station, said: "The flooding is right in the middle of the village. We understand a culvert was being diverted and the water was going in at one end, but not coming out of the other.

"It had nowhere to drain and Church Green then started to fill with water. At its worst point it was 5ft deep and the water had engulfed cars parked both on the road and even in garages.

"The water was coming in quicker than we could pump it out."

A spokesman for Kirklees Highways Service said: "We were working on a drain improvement scheme in the Kirkburton area.

"As yet we do not know how these problems have been caused.

"Engineers are on site today with specialist equipment to try and discover what happened."