Forums Forums Local News Flooding

Seeing all this flooding going on around us is horrendous. I tried to think when I last saw a truck come and clean the grids in roads and can’t remember it’s been that long.
I try to clean the leaves when they clog up grid outside mine but obviously it’s not enough , they all need to be maintained and kept clear.
Its about time this Wirral council got its act together and start concentrating on important things, not creating another park when they can’t keep our main parks safe !

I can't remember the last time I have seen the grids being cleaned either.
The rain wasn't even as bad as it has been in the past, and these places didn't flood so much then.

I think that is harsh, I had to go to Bromborough yesterday afternoon to collect my car and the rain was the worst I have ever known, this carried on while I was coming back via Spital towards the M53. I don't believe any drains in the world could cope with that level of sudden and persistent rain. I agree I have not seen a truck cleaning the drains for a long time .

You can check when your street is cleaned https://www.wirral.gov.uk/environmental-problems/street-care-and-cleaning/street-cleaning#wgSM-4

Borough Road, Birkenhead appeared to have someone round in the middle of the rain unclogging drains, there were a large number of blocked drains earlier on then clear later. I believe down towards Well Lane there was about two feet of water at one point.

Looks like a large manhole cover might have blown on Kings Road around Brimstage Avenue, the road surface was raised around the manhole and a fire engine was down the drive of a house opposite.

Yeh, I'm back if that's ok. ? Missed you all.


The lady along the road from us had a manhole cover blown in her garden, which resulted in sewage everywhere. It was pretty violent here, but seemed to drain away quickly after the torrent stopped.
I have never seen my garden flooded in 22 yrs, but it was the other day.

Who had their canoe out in BIrkenhead. ? Ha.

Hi Granny, glad to see you back , it just hasn’t been the same without you.
Yes thought I may see Noah and his Ark floating by, ha.
Seriously though it was pretty frightening my sons road was flooded and the manhole had to be removed to get rid of the water. I still think it’s got a lot to do with grids not getting cleaned regularly, I want to see one of those trucks that regularly used to come and suck up the debris that collects.

With a downpour like that quite often it doesn't make any difference how often the streets are cleaned, the downpour pulls loads of leaves off the trees which block the drain.

If its just litter that is blocking the drains, blame the litterbugs not the Council.

I used to clear a drain on Barnston Road and at the time we had a road sweeper clear the gutters a number of times a week, it still blocked and flooded.

I cleared the drain because the flood was causing traffic jams, whilst I wasn't expecting thanks I'd still get numerous cars purposely aiming for the flood to soak me - bit pointless really as it was pouring down and I wasn't exactly sitting on my armchair with my slippers on in front of a cosy fire. Two feet nearer and I would have put my rod through their car in self-defence - idiots!

On Friday morning ,after the deluge , there was a council vehicle cleaning the grids in our road, stable door and bolting horse comes to mind.

Leaves and litter may block the drains but litter is nowhere near as bad as it was years ago. If the drains got unblocked more regularly, like they used to be, I doubt this would have been so bad.
Welcome back Granny.

People tend to forget the thing about blown manhole covers. When I see people on tv wading through soupy floodwater, I have the horrors about someone falling down a manhole! Edit: Wheee, just noticed this is my thousandth post!

Wirral Council are having an investigation into the flooding.
Who is responsible for cleaning and unblocking the drains, WBC or United Utilities?
I'd have thought this solely rests on the shoulders of United Utilities. Whoever it is, they need to pull their finger out.
https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/19578567.investigation-flooding-heavy-rain-wirral/

Street grids and drains are responsibility of the Council, the main pipes are the responsibility of United Utilities.

There is no resolution to sudden hard downpours, in the southern parts of the USA where they have regular hard downpours they have absolutely huge grids (I've seen 8ft X 6ft grids in roads) and massive amounts of stormwater storage and levees, the hardest rain still catches them out and roads and property flood.

You could throw a lot of money at it but are us the users prepared to pay?

Generally the priority in the UK is to protect houses over roads, which is a sensible approach.

Older district in the UK have combined surface and foul water drains which compounds the issue, we try to capture and store nearly all of that water - admittedly some companies have performed poorly in that respect where they release the water untreated. It is exceedingly rare to have foul water backing up in houses in this area.

Newer house have separate foul and surface water drainage which enables better capture of surface water in open stormwater storage. But land is expensive and using it for storm water storage needs a lot of money. In places we have massive underground tanks but they are hugely expensive to build.

Bursting roads/manholes are also reasonably rare but wherever there is higher ground near lower ground there will always be some risk. 90ft of water exerts about 40 psi pressure, on a 2ft X 2ft manhole that is roughly 11.5 tons of force, easy to contain in a downwards direction, much more difficult in an upward direction without 10 tons of counterweight for each manhole. Fortunately it acts as a release otherwise that pressure could arrive in houses.

Its not perfect but generally we are somewhere around a reasonable compromise between cost and effectiveness around here, other parts of the country have much worse problems, not helped by corruption within the industry thanks to us hiving this service out to foreign countries/companies

Of course, I believe it should be a public utility but it appears I am outvoted by capitalists - you get what you vote for.

In summary, are you prepared to pay for a better system and have a proportion of that money given away to financial gamblers?

I seen a picture of a guy kayaking down new Chester road when it was flooded

A new experience to add to Wirral's collection.

Thanks to Cools and Mikeeb. I have been waiting for something like an interesting topic to appear, ones which can involve more members , but so far no luck.

Sadly, they are thin on thin on the ground.

It may be nearing time for monsoon ditches, I know a lot about monsoon ditches, I fell in one many years ago, but I was drunk.

Welcome back granny missed you xx

Posting on Twitter, the Green councillor, Jason Walsh, claimed blocked gullies contributed to the flooding, saying he previously reported blockages but had been told there was "no issue."

Now if a local councillor can't do anything about the problem, what hope do we have?


A photo taken by Cllr Walsh of leaves covering a drain in Bebington, which he says he reported prior to the flooding.

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/council-accused-not-doing-enough-21719819

A cheap snipe from a Councillor who hasn't come up with a solution himself.

Where would the money come from to pay for daily drain clearances?

If that was outside my house I would have had a go at getting rid of those leaves myself. The thing is DD I don’t think anyone would expect them to be looked at daily but certainly maybe on a monthly basis get the sucker truck or whatever.. I’ve seen builders letting all their rubbish and bits of concrete be washed down them . Also you see the grass verges which get cut someone comes along with a blower and a lot of grass goes down the grids. As I say I would like to see that truck come along and suck them clean ….

But if its only done once a month its still going to flood when it rains, in fact as I stated earlier, the rain brings the leaves off the trees so even daily cleaning won't always help.

Just some Councillor taking a cheap shot without a solution.

Have you checked how often your road is cleaned - I posted a link earlier in the thread that will tell you, my road is cleaned once every 4 weeks. https://www.wirral.gov.uk/environmental-problems/street-care-and-cleaning/street-cleaning#wgSM-4

If you see the grass cutters blowing grass into the gutters, report them, the cuttings are supposed to be removed or left on the grass. This is not allowed and they have been reminded of this previously after I kicked up a stink.

If you see builders putting anything down a drain other than water or slightly contaminated water, report them, this is a criminal offence for good reason.

I’ve looked at the schedule and I admit I have seen a vehicle that goes up one side then down the other I presume is swiping the gutters and any leaves lying on top of grids. What I would like to see is the one that stops at each grid and puts a large tube down which sucks up what it can reach on bottom. It used to come at least a couple of times a year I’m sure.
All I can suggest is people try and keep their grids outside their homes clear of leaves and debris it’s got to help a little…

To be fair, the leaves have only just begun to fall. As time moves on, it will be a problem. Who remembers the tree falling into a car near Arrowe Park/Warrens Medical Centre a few years ago ? Poor girl lost her baby.
Trees are no longer pruned or lopped, they just get higher and top heavy these days (something else that has gone by the wayside. )That week, we'd had heavy rain, and for the first time I witnessed the roundabout area and going up towards the Warrens, flooded.
It was one of those trees that came down, and I suspect the rain had made the ground and roots so wet, as the drains were blocked.
The following week, the drain cleaners were going up and down the surrounding roads like nobody's business. I wonder if that might have been before any assesment was made...... or could it have been afterwards ? Whichever way, it was obvious the drains needed clearing to stop the flooding.
I hope it doesn't happen to anyone else, because the council reads post on here, and they know exactly what the people think, feel and expect for their council to do for the safety of the communities.
Falling branches on highways is the next thing about to happen . Goodness knows who they sub contracted the highways and byeways to, but they don't do anything !! Well, not for maintaining healthy trees they don't........ and we pay for this ! Makes me fume.

There was also a tree killed a solicitor down Barnston dip, I'm not sure if there was a second incident there as well.

We had a cowboy contract for trees for a few years, its taken a lot of work for the new contractor to try and catch up. I imagine our wet weather the last couple of years has restricted some of the more major tree surgery. I'm sure I saw some stats a year oer two ago and the new contractor had done very well indeed

Trees can be very unpredictable, if you chopped down every tree that showed some signs of failure or imbalance you might not have many left.

Of course whenever the Council has trees cut down for safety reasons there is always someone kicking off like the farce at Grange Cemetery not long ago where one of the main agitators had some of his facts completely wrong.

No it is not a cheap snipe. He reported the problem and wanted the drains unblocking but was told there was no issue. Well there was an issue, the drains should have been unblocked.
And no one is asking for a daily drain clearance either, I can't even remember the last time I seen one.

The trouble is that since the magic wand of privatisation, most services are contracted out, refuse and street cleansing to Biffa, and as far as I am aware the gully suckers belong to another contractor, parks and gardens another contractor all allegedly picked for best value, which usually means the cheapest with the best promises of a good service.

Regarding the leaves, now Autumn is upon us the leaf fall will increase and it will become extremely difficult for any contractor to keep up with clearing the leaf fall especially those areas with large amounts of trees, do they just concentrate on those areas and default on others? leaves blocking grids, quite often cars are parked near to our over the grid usually compacting the leaves, so its not quite as easy as some may think.

I think we should all try in some way to keep Wirral as tidy as we can, I have a neighbour who appears to manufacture rubbish, he has two bins ( family of four) always appear to be overflowing litter blowing everywhere, usually on his elderly neighbours front, I have asked him to clear her front and pick up the litter completely ignored, yet he thanked me for doing it, you couldn't make it up.

Its a cheap snipe because he knows there is no solution but he is using it to give negative publicity about the Council. Its plain manipulation of the press and the electorate.

Nobody as yet has come up with a workable solution.

If he has a solution he should state it, if he hasn't he should shut up and behave himself.

In turn the PR gurus at the town hall and the journalists in the media should should do their jobs and call him out and ask for his solution to the problem.

I would love to know how anything apart from daily cleaning would have a significant impact on the flooding problem or is the alternative to have a drain clearance team and equipment on standby 24/7? This thread is about flooding, not leaves in gutters when there are no floods.

I know when John Darlington had his yard in Heswall, his road sweepers used to clear the A551 up to twice a day in Autumn from Gayton Roundabout northwards and some of the sideroads. How it was funded I have no idea but it might have been on route to clearing Barnston dip which is highly prone to impassible flooding and a major access route for both commuters and emergency services (and perhaps John's lorries), the ensuing traffic jam from flooding would block other routes as well .

The workable solution is clean the grids more often, and even more often in vulnerable areas or this is going to get worse.
To ask where is the money coming from, and someone answers, uh! dunno! Does that mean we should just shut up and behave, as you suggest, then forget about it?
These things need to be resolved and discussed about, not forgotten about just because there isn't enough money.
They should come up with a damn plan, and the more councillors that point this out, the more likely something will be done.

You've missed the bit I've said a few times .... the rain brings down leaves and twigs and branches off the trees. The grid can be 100% clear but a heavy downpour will choke it up with leaves. Cleaning more often will not stop the flooding unless you clean on the day it floods.

They know where the money would have to come from - Council Tax, but the Government have capped the amount Council tax can rise while imposing additional spending on the Council. Instead the Council would have to impose a cut on another Council service to pay for the occasional flooding.

A thirteen year old girl threw herself of a bridge last Saturday, tell me how many more cuts to support services, community services and policing we should do?

Do you think this has not been talked about numerous times in the past - it crops up every year, nobody has come up with a solution within the financial constraints because every Council is under financial constraints thanks to people who vote for Governments that borrow the most and give the money away to the rich. If you want a Government that supports society then that is a socialist Government - the clue is in the name. You get what you vote for.

So far as I am aware, Council Pay for these out- sourced services one/two or more years in advance. So it's already paid for.

If a service is already paid for, then 'cuts' should not come into the equation.

Here's one for Biffa. 2015

https://www.letsrecycle.com/news/biffa-signs-ten-year-wirral-collection-contract-extension/

Waste services firm Biffa Municipal has signed a ten-year extension to its waste collection contract with Wirral council worth around £115 million.

Down the road from me there's a grid that is often clogged up with leaves, twigs etc. It floods halfway across the road (on a junction) in heavy rain. I've taken to going out with the yard brush and scraping it clear; it doesn't take long for it to drain - until the next time, of course! Better than nothing, though.