More flooding and more engaged phone lines

by Lib Dem Team on 16 September, 2016

Tuesday saw another extreme downpour with half a month’s rain falling in the space of an hour across Greater Manchester.

Information from the Council for anyone affected can be found here.

These events are difficult to fully deal with. The drainage system in the UK was never designed with the capacity to handle that amount of water falling in that short a time, so we get localised flooding before the water can drain away.

We know some local roads were badly affected: Longley Lane just over the border in Manchester, Manchester Road near the Alex and Wilmslow Road near the Village Hotel. We’re speaking to the two councils about how these might be sorted out for future.

We are also very concerned that people calling the Council with flooding issues from across Stockport had problems getting through and were often on hold for more than an hour. That’s simply not acceptable. We have suggested that the local councils might work together to provide an out-of-hours call centre with the capacity to deal with these emergency events.

Please let us know if your property was affected by the flooding.

   2 Comments

2 Responses

  1. Robert Cohen says:

    It is a strong possibility that simple maintenance could have alleviated some of the problems, although it is unlikely that such a downpour would not cause some disruption.

    There has to be a concentrated and regular programme of cleaning drains and gullies. If see are even only partially blocked localised flooding will occur, even in ‘normal’ heavy rain periods. It is amazing that the flooding still occurs at the Kingsway junction to Gatley Road, this being one of the busiest junctions in Greater Manchester.

    Perhaps if government can find billions for HS2 (an unnecessary) project a few quid could be procured to sort out drains here and up and down the country?

  2. Stuart Thompson says:

    On Tuesday evening, I drove from the centre of Cheadle to Chads Theatre in Cheadle Hulme. The flooding was spectacular but not impossible to overcome and most drivers were very sensible about the way they drove through the floods. I left home at about 7:00 pm and arrived about 7:45. It was comforting to be driving a diesel car as there was no ignition system to fail. I emerged from the floods near the Kenilworth and was reassured to see a 157 bus heading northwards. It reassured me that there was unlikely to be a deep puddle to negotiate near Cheadle Hulme Station and this proved to be correct.

    I returned just after 10:00 pm and noticed that the roads were almost free of water by then. Clearly, all the drains along my route were working correctly as the road was almost free of puddles whereas on previous occasions, heavy rain had often left puddles that took several hours to disappear.

    I was rather puzzled by the long delays some people encountered before they could speak to anyone in authority on the telephone. Is that really necessary? Other countries have simple and effective arrangements for feeding weather information to the population. A small number of emergency staff feed information to TV stations. These broadcast summaries as frequently updated weather maps until the crisis is over, with radio updates for those with no immediate access to TV. I experienced this type of emergency weather briefing during a very severe hurricane in the Bahamas and in the tornado season in Minnesota. These reports were clear, simple and effective and make one to one contact with an official an expensive and unnecessary luxury.

    If anyone in the UK requires continuous detailed reporting this could easily be provided by a mobile phone system used by several football clubs. This has been available for almost 2 years and operates by pooling the computing power of mobile phones of those who subscribe to the system. It has totally revolutionised the pooling of information available to club members and feeding it to club members. I am a season ticket holder at Huddersfield Town football club and have continuous access to match information before, during and after games, and can book tickets and/or transport for both home and away games on line. I am told that the system pools the computer memory resources of subscribers and accounts for the user friendly nature of the system. It operates under the name “Town Square”. I am sure that it has great possibilities as an information resource for use in emergency situations. The club is very conscious of the need for joint action at times of emergency and it is a strong supporter of, and fund raiser for, Yorkshire Air Ambulance. An enquiry to the Club could tell you how we could set up a similar system economically in the Greater Manchester area.

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