May Houston, who lives in the flats in Nithsdale Crescent, Bearsden, with her 10-year-old daughter Brook, said: "The smell is coming from raw sewage at the entrance to the flats.

"This problem has been going on for as long as I have lived here, over eight years, and we are getting really fed up of it now.

"The stench comes into your house and every time you walk in and out it hits you and makes you feel ill. There is obviously quite a serious problem with the drains somewhere which has never been properly fixed by the council.

"When there is heavy rain the lids on the drains nearby all lift up and water floods everywhere."

A plumber, a friend of May's, stuck a rod down a drain at the flats once and the problem eased for a while but it came back again.

May added: "The smell never goes away, it's really disgusting. No-one should have to put up with the stench of effluent in their house. We would like the council to fix it once and for all."

Local SNP activist Iain White, who will stand for the party at the forthcoming General Election, has taken up her cause and has already written to East Dunbartonshire's chief executive Gerry Cornes about it.

Mr White said: "I was really sickened when I saw this and found out it had been going on for years.

"One man I spoke to is dreading the summer, the smell of it and all the flies means that he can't open his windows.

"I found two drain covers that have completely disintegrated, a stank cover which, I was told, lifted and exuded sewage waste. Further down, the road was flooded although there had been no recent rain.

"Clearly there are severe drainage problems in this area, yet the council is ignoring the problem."

An East Dunbartonshire Council spokesperson said: "A council officer visited the area but could see no trace or evidence of sewage seeping from the front of any building. He did see some evidence of work having started by another contractor but we do not have the details of this."