South Ulverston -the drains need cleaning

The meeting at the Coro regarding the Flooding focussed largely on the issue of blocked drains.

Here is footage of what happened a year ago - September 2008 - when residents were left to attempt to clean the drains themselves.





In the first case they couldn't manage it but in the second they did.

At the time the water was lapping dangerously close to several of the houses on North Lonsdale Road who were protecting themselves with sand bags.

So the claim that the drains on North Lonsdale Road are not being cleared properly rings true.

The spokesman for the Council excused their service saying that they had thousands of drains to clear but surely with South Ulverston being a flooding blackspot their drains should be given priority, ahead of all others in the area.

Have the drains been thoroughly clean now?

Perhaps the residents need to devise a test for really clear drains themselves?
Emptying ten buckets of water into each drain in one go would show up deficient ones.
Then they could play hell to have them cleaned.

Call round the top officials and Councillors to watch the test on those that fail and see what they are going to do about it.

This has the makings of a fun ritual so that never again would they have a blocked drain.

Having said all this isn't it of equal importance to get a clear explanation of exactly what was the cause of the flooding of houses this time round.

The people who will give the most honest answers are the Environment Agency who have offered to have a review in six months time.

The next people to be questioned are United Utilities as to how effectively the main surface water drains in the town are working when under severe pressure. Is what is happening that water from the town is being dumped in South Ulverston because the old drain can't get the water to the sea fast enough.

The report from one resident that water was coming up out of her loo into her house is very worrying. Exactly what happened.

For the most part, the fact that water came up through cracks in the concrete floor into some houses, which I've seen, suggests that the pressure from the lake the other side of the Steel Street wall was able to push water up into the houses. No amount of sand bags can stop this. The only sensible solution to this seems to me is to raise the floor level by a foot leaving the houses still livable in but requiring considerable work done now for a total reorganisation of the ground floor.

What are your thoughts about what should be done?

Where you happy with the way the Flood summit was conducted?

I was bitterly disappointed as expressed by my letter to the Evening Mail sent in last Sunday.