Fed-up pensioner tells of flood hell in home
Claimsoverflowingdrainscausewatertobuildupincellar
A Rutherglen pensioner has blamed street drains for causing water to leak into his basement.
Danny Smith, of Coldstream Drive, has been left exasperated by continual problems whenever there is heavy rain fall.
The 83-year-old believes that street drains near to his home are continually overflowing, sending water towards his cellar.
South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) insist the drains are not to blame, but have promised street works anyway.
Danny told the Reformer that he had to fix the problem by asking a private company to carry out repairs in his home.
He explained: “This has been going on for a while now.
“Whenever there is heavy rain and the drain floods, it comes through there, out into my driveway and it floods into my cellar.
“I have phoned the council, but they have still not been out back about it, so I had to call a company to try and sort the cellar and fix there.
“I’m at the lowest point in the street so I get all of the water that comes in.
“I dread checking the cellar when I see the drains are overflowing because I know that there will problems.
“When I phoned them they didn’t seem to bother their shirt tails about getting back to me.
“The drains always get filled up, and you ended up with rubbish and dirt coming out.”
SLC have now promised to ensure that the drains on the road, and on nearby Lauder Drive, are working correctly.
Colin Park, SLC’s head of roads and transportation, said: “Mr Smith contacted us recently regarding a blocked gully on Coldstream Drive.
“We found some standing water on the opposite side of the road, but no surface water lying outside the property.
“There is no link between road drains and the property’s cellar, but we will clean the gullies on both sides of the road to ensure the road drainage system is fully operational, and we will continue to monitor it.”
The local authority has also promised to contact Scottish Water to ensure the street is included in their internal flooding register in order that they check all their apparatus at the locus, and not only the water main, to ensure that it is not the cause of flooding.
Whenever there is heavy rain and the drain floods, it comes through there, out into my driveway and floods my cellar Danny Smith