Drains & Flooding

[Penguin68]

Checking the gutter drain nearest my house today (the car normally parked over it had moved) I found it almost completely blocked - I have just cleared it. With 'torrential' rain forecast it would have flooded back into my property via the dropped kerb if I hadn't and it did rain (may still do so depending on how much rain arrives). If you have a gutter drain close I would suggest making the same check yourselves. I haven't seen the council/ Thames Water cleaners in operation at all recently - although the parked cars anyway do make cleaning more difficult. They do also 'vacuum' the drains to clear any blockages further down, but I couldn't do that, of course, and they haven't either.

[Nigello]

I saw huge puddles at Goose Green earlier this year and elsewhere and reported it to James McCash and it was fixed.

I don’t know whether drain clearing comes under the council or Thames Water.

[Penguin68]

I don’t know whether drain clearing comes under the council or Thames Water.

I think that councils are responsible for street cleaning (i.e. leaves inter alia) but that blocked drains (often blocked by leaves) fall into Thames Water's responsibility area. It is Thames that sends out (I think) those bowser lorries with a huge vacuum hose to suck debris out of drains as part of regular maintenance. The drought locally has caused early leaf fall so the council's normal rota of leaf clearance in autumn needs/ has needed to be brought forward. Unless the gutters and drains are cleared then the promised 'torrential' rain may cause flooding - although even with cleared drains the waste water pipes can be overwhelmed.

My point was that - in the absence of 'official' clearance - it would make sense, if you can, to do what you can to unblock grates locally to you.