Two houseboat families have been plunged back into legal limbo after their homes were threatened by a High Court challenge.

Neighbours Mary and Hilary Graham and Jan Mahon won a nine-year battle to permanently moor their homes near Kingston railway bridge in June.

But now they face further misery after learning a waterway campaigner from Camden has applied for a judicial review of the decision.

Mrs Graham, who helped save a drowning woman in January 2010, said: “It is devastating and it is affecting my husband’s health.

“We all thought ‘We are here now’, but we are still on this bloody treadmill. I cannot give up, it is my home.”

The bid to keep houseboats Riverside and Benfleet drew stiff opposition from the Environment Agency (EA) on flood risk grounds.

But the issue drew sympathy from the public and about 35 people cheered when Kingston councillors voted to let the houseboats stay.

Now campaigner Del Brenner is applying for a legal review on the grounds the councillors’ decision breached council planning policy.

He said: “In the planning policy, [it states] it should be used for visitor moorings, not only two boats.”

Councillor Barry O’Mahony, who has supported the houseboats in their struggle, branded the hearing “an awful waste of public money”.

He said: “We probably have hundreds of illegal boats in the Thames who pay no licence or river fee, and we are powerless to deal with this. But here we have two families that have lived on the river for 20 years, pay council tax and mooring fees, and we are picking on them.”

An EA spokesman said: “A third party may raise a judicial review. We cannot comment on whether or not we support this as we may be invited to provide evidence at a hearing.”

The application will be heard at the High Court on Thursday, March 22.