Reader's Photos: Flooding in Wilmslow

Repetitive flooding on the little park on South Drive Wilmslow just behind the Revolution pub.

I can fully appreciate the photos above, but the flooding is on a park or fields, and Alderley Road, I have been suffering for 10 years, the flooding around my house is as bad as any of these photos, but the only difference, is the water surrounds my whole house front and back, I’ve been fighting with Cheshire East for 10 years, I’ve sent hundreds of photos, hundreds of emails, and the same number of phone calls. To be fair they come around and clean my grid on the road outside my house, I’ve had some of the flood management team in my house, shown them photos and videos, and asked through the freedom of information act, what they intend to do, but up till now no spade has been put in the ground.
The other side of this is the terrible amount of slutch and debris left all around my house which I have to spend a whole day on a full clean up, only for it to happen again the next day. I’ve actually slipped on the slime, and when I reported it, the reply said it is not our problem, I’m not far of 70 years of age, am disabled, and the solution I received was 10 bags of sand, I cannot even lift a bucket of sand on the beach with the grandkids.
They know there is a major problem, made worst by the fact they broke a root cutter in the pipes which is still there many years after it broke, and the other end of the road a telegraph pole has gone through the pipe, I’m at my wits end and all they do is walk up and down the road and talk about who to blame and who’s problem it is.
Hope you feel fit for this letter to be printed.

Kind Regards
Ray Wallace

Ray Wallace, you don't mention where you are and it sounds a shameful but familiar CEC 'policy' (or more accurately 'no policy') story borne out of a saga of dereliction of duty....heard that before!
The fact that 'they' broke a root cutter some years back (and have extensively discussed your situation) indicates CEC Highways apparently accepted responsibilty for maintenance etc.
It's really deliberate neglect by our local authority; for over 3 years now I've been seeking to get a handful of blocked (really blocked solid) drainage gullies cleared along our 350M long stretch of road and to give you an idea of what's involved, a neighbour got fed up and cleared one outside his home - without any special equipment it took him about 30 minutes to gain access and remove around 150-200L of compacted detritis - CEC should manage the same in no more than 8-10 minutes but they somehow cannot manage to schedule the work. It's a matter of maintenance which is just not being attended to and this sort of corporate vandalism contributes to the widespread flooding we now seem to suffer.
It's very convenient to pass the problem off on climate change but we (the rate paying public) should only accept this reasoning once all 'normal' common sense mitigating steps have been undertaken to ensure the existing (and I hope planned additional) drainage infrastructure is in good working order.
CEC's on-line complaints system is a joke - in November I followed-up on my complaint (logged in May 2019) only to find it had been closed as 'Resolved'; it was reinstated, apparently to be included in a much wider CEC 'northern boundary' programme devised to rectify the widely reported A555 and A34 (Alderley Edge By-pass) and rivers Bollin and Dean flooding episodes. I was assured by CEC (and my local councillor) that 'our' work would be completed before Christmas (I assumed Christmas 2019....) - we're still waiting!!

A couple of weeks back a gang of contractors (4 big vans, a huge suction/flush truck and a safety coning crew truck) finally attended to the A555 'new' and 25 years old attenuation tanks/pumping station at the B5358 Handforth intersection where there was extensive flooding in August last year (so, even that took 6 months to sort). In order to carry out operations the A555 was 'controlled' (to some extent or other, coned-off) over 5 (yes FIVE) working days, each day the crews were waiting on local adjacent minor roads for up to two hours (and after the morning peak period too..!) before actually starting any work; the A555 is quite busy but not so busy that work could not have been carried out on a round-the-clock basis (or at least with the maximum use of daylight hours) without a compromise on safety. Not sure if this was a CEC or Stockport MBC project but if it's typical of how work is managed it's grossly inefficient and costly - and this was on a 'new' section of dual carriageway where the drainage somehow failed at it's first (and second) test - it was blocked?
Scandalous

John Harries what your describing is just an extension of what I’ve been fighting for years, yes I totally agree most of the road gullies are chock-a-block with sticks, leaves, mud and god knows what else, I live on Macclesfield Road and I’m constantly keeping the gully outside me house spotless, yet the other 10 gullies either side of mine is jammed packed with rubbish, they have had a camera down and it is compacted with large wooden roots and the drain has collapsed, I realise the drainage system is antiquated, and can not cope with the amount of water now being dropped, but with climate change, the problem is going to get a whole lot worst, but cleaning out the gullies once in a blue moon is no way going to solve this massive problem, on the worst effected they need completely replacing, and do the rest as and when, but it is all down to money, so I don’t see any changes in the near future.