Flooding gullies to be cleaned more in new drainage strategy

GLASGOW’S flooding gullies will be cleaned more regularly as the council launches a drainage strategy.

There have been a number of reports over the last year of Glasgow residents facing flooded roads across the city, with people blaming blocked drains. Now following a review, the council has agreed that every gully susceptible to flooding will be cleaned three times annually.

Gullies on arterial and city centre routes needing attention will be cleaned once a year while those in neighbourhood areas will be cleared once every two years. The gullies will be inspected in communities before gully cleaning vehicles enter the area.

Meanwhile locations covered in fallen leaves will be swept weekly during autumn.

The changes are included in a road investment strategy report, which is being presented to council Area Partnership meetings.

During a presentation of the report, head of roads Andy Mollon told the Baillieston Area Partnership on Tuesday: “The team have undertaken a review of our gully cleaning process. It is now being recommended we follow a risk-based approach to undertaking gully cleaning.”

He added: “Any gullies that are clear with no debris within them, which are working correctly, will not be attended to. That way we can get round much quicker and deal with the gullies we need to deal with.”

The new risk-based drainage strategy kicked off last year.

The city has 74,000 gullies, 2500km of road drains, manholes, pumps, kerb drains and a variety of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS).

The road investment report also said £25.1 million would be poured into maintaining carriageways in the city over the next three years and revealed 88km of main roads are in poor condition.

The paper said Glasgow is one of the best performing road authorities in the country with 70% of roads in acceptable condition compared to a Scottish average of 64%. The council paper said 81% of footways are in either a good or fair condition while just under 3% covering 92km have major or structural deterioration.