AS THE floodwater which ravaged the Tandridge district subsides, one woman says she has been left "devastated" by the aftermath.
Fields off Woldingham Road – including part of Mandy Small's paddock – were dug up last month by bulldozers to form flood relief channels.
Such was the volume of water pouring from the Caterham Bourne in Woldingham that a chunk of Mrs Small's five-acre site was transformed into a mini-reservoir.
The whole episode has turned her childhood dream of owning stables into a nightmare, she said. A one-acre strip of her land resembles a churned-up battlefield, while water is still gushing prodigiously into a mini-lake there.
Mrs Small said it would be too dangerous to let horses roam anywhere near the site.
The 68-year-old explained: "When I was a little girl I always wanted my own stables.
"I eventually scrimped and scraped to buy Bournefield Stud Farm 22 years ago, but the past few weeks have been heartbreaking.
"I accept the flood relief work had to be done.
"But I feel really stressed that the land will ever recover."
She added: "And at my age I really don't need all this uncertainty."
Mrs Small, who lives in Southbridge Road, Croydon, was widowed when her husband Bill died three years ago.
And she said health problems, including a back condition, have contributed further to her anxiety.
She said even a minor alteration, such as restoring the earthwork next to her front gate, would allow her the small satisfaction of being able to park on her land again, and not by a grass verge on Woldingham Road.
A spokeswoman for Tandridge District Council said the authority's chief community services officer, Paul Barton, had been talking to Mrs Small previously and appreciated that she is worried.
The spokeswoman added: "He will contact her next week to discuss her concerns."
