‘We have to wear wellies in the garden’
Family left with ‘water feature’ on doorstep after sinkhole opens up
AMOTHER-OF-TWO from Runcorn says her children have been forced to wear wellies every time they leave their home due to a sinkhole opening up in their front garden.
Faye Tig, 35, said she has been left with a “water feature” on her doorstep after her garden began to fill with water back in February.
Water has continued flooding the garden for months, and it has even left them without tap water in the home.
The mum claims despite repeated complaints to Riverside Housing, they haven’t dealt with the issue after desperate pleas.
Faye said: “It’s like a water feature outside the house.
“I have to put wellies on the kids.
“I’ve been left with no tap water and I’ve been drinking bottles of water for months.
“It’s that bad now the actual mains waterpipe has burst. A man who came out yesterday said he couldn’t fix it.”
Faye – whose children are Arif (nine) and Ayla (seven) – said she reported the problem in February to Riverside Housing who she said sent somebody out to take photographs.
When the problem grew worse in April, she said she contacted the housing association again.
She said: “I’ve got six trees in the garden and it’s the roots that have burst the waterpipe apparently.
“When I noticed the water was getting higher and higher I logged it again.
“They came out about a month later and said they couldn’t do anything about it.
“My whole drive and garden is now completely waterlogged.
“The postman jumps next door’s fence and knocks on my living room window to give me my post.
“He won’t walk through it. Same with Asda deliveries, it’s like ankle-deep water.”
Faye said since she reported the problem to Riverside Housing, they have “passed the buck” claiming they couldn’t get the funding to do the repairs.
Riverside Housing said the delay was caused by trying to establish who owned the pipe network with United Utilities and that the tap water to the house had not been affected.
Despite this, in the five months since she reported the issue, Faye said the problem continues to worsen.
She said: “It’s like a little sinkhole and I’m scared I’m going to wake up one morning and my house is going to be underground!
“There’s an actual hole in the ground.
“When the men came out they dug about four foot deep and said they can’t fix it as it’s cracked all the way along.”
She added: “A dog walker walked past the other week and started waving through the living room window.
“I went out and he said, ‘do you know the water’s running out of your drive and all the way down the street?’ I said yes, I’m quite aware and I’ve been trying to get them [Riverside Housing] to do something about it.”
Faye, who has a chronic health condition, said her mental health has suffered due to the stress caused by the persistent flooding, adding: “Since this happened it’s getting worse because I’m not sleeping.”
Mark Burnett, Riverside’s head of assets strategy and delivery for the region, said: “We are sincerely sorry that it has taken longer than expected to fix the leak which caused flooding to Ms Tig’s front driveway.
“Unfortunately repair works were delayed by a few months as we needed confirmation from United Utilities to determine who owned the pipe network before we could carry out any excavation work and we apologise for this.
“Our contractors attended the property last month and dug down to try and locate the leak which they couldn’t find, so recommended to us that a new water main should be installed and this was approved.
“A further visit to the property took place on August 24 to assess the work required and they are currently carrying out repairs to get it fixed. Tap water to the property has not been affected by the leak.
“We are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience caused to Ms Tig. Our repairs team have been in working with her to get this fixed and we will be compensating her for the inconvenience caused.”