‘Dangerous’ problem affecting thousands set to be tackled

The issue has reportedly sometimes even flooded people’s homes

“Action is finally going to be taken” to tackle a problem affecting people across part of Merseyside.

According to a briefing circulated to councillors on Wirral Council’s environment, climate emergency, and transport committee, the council plans to change how it clears blocked drains across the borough.

This is due to one tanker used to clear them being beyond its use-by date, ‘an ad-hoc program’, and rising complaints from residents and local councillors due to visible surface flooding.

To do this, Wirral Council has published a plan to clean every drain in the borough at least once a year for the next two years and then monitor how quickly they are filling up each year after that. There are around 60,000 gullies across Wirral with nearly 50,000 of these cleaned in the last five years.

On average, the council carries out around 21,000 operations a year, an average of 143 a day. Most complaints around drains being blocked as well as road surface flooding are made during the autumn and winter.

Going forward, the local authority will look to appoint a contractor using funding from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Sustainable Transport Settlement.

Two new tankers to clean out drains will also be bought costing £520,000 saving time and costs due to breakdowns and repairs.

The briefing note said the council’s previous vehicle used to clear drains has been condemned with a replacement costing the council £1,400 a week in rental costs.

The council is even looking at buying a second-hand vehicle to reduce costs until it can buy the new tankers but councillors would need to agree to fund this.

Cllr Allan Brame told the ECHO he had been asking for information on how to tackle the problem for years, adding: “Everyone will have seen small lakes that appear regularly around some of our grids when it rains, or noticed rainwater pouring straight over grids that are completely choked with mud or chippings after a road has been resurfaced.

“Traffic can be forced to make dangerous manoeuvres around ponds that cover half the road and in places pavements can be totally submerged, becoming impassable for pedestrians. On occasions, rainwater even floods people’s homes.

“I have been pressing for action to tackle this issue for some years and am delighted that action is finally going to be taken. There is no point in having grids if water can’t get down them.”

People can report flooding on the roads to Wirral Council via its website. However the local authority does say “flooding due to heavy rain is not normally caused by blocked drains,” adding: “It is normally due to the volume of water and will usually go away as the storm passes.”

Flooding issues can be reported here. Flooding issues from the sea or rivers should be reported to the Environment Agency while sewer flooding issues should be reported to either Welsh Water or United Utilities depending on where you live on the Wirral.