Flooding averted but Cambridge residents fear water will return
A Cambridge resident has praised Anglian Water for its quick response in helping to save their homes from flash food damage – but has called for more action from the city council.
Disabled resident Sue Francis, of Thorpe Way, was one of half a dozen residents who fought to keep the water out of their homes following the sudden downpour last weekend. The water came from nearby drainage ditch, which had become blocked.
Residents praised the help of an employee from Anglian Water who stayed with them for a number of hours to ensure the flooding was kept under control and out of their homes.
But residents fear the same flooding threat will recur throughout the winter, and say they have approached Cambridge City Council, which rents out the properties.
Ms Francis said: “The county council says it has nothing to do with them and because it is not from a river, the Environment Agency can’t help us. It is a run off from the fields, so they put me on to drainage.
“It is down to the city council but I cannot get to speak to my housing officer. Nobody from the city council has come down to look at what we are putting up with.
“Nobody appears to want to take responsibility for when this watercourse fills up. We’ve been told that we need to take action ourselves and I was even told how to fill a sandbag in case the water comes into my house.
“We were given the run around when this happened, but thankfully within 10 minutes of a phone call to Anglian Water, somebody turned up.
“He came on his own to unblock a manhole and he stayed with us for two hours because it just kept filling up again. He just kept plugging away to stop the water from flooding our houses. He was an angel.”
Anglian Water dealt with debris, said to have come from the actions of a third party, which had caused the blockage. It is understood remains of tree branches and bushes was responsible for the problem.
An Anglian Water spokesperson said: “We attended an issue on Thorpe Way, Cambridge, this weekend which was caused by a blockage to one of our inlets.
“A large amount of debris from a third party had blocked the inlet, once this was cleared the water was able to flow through. Due to the increased amount of water that had backed up from the heavy rainfall over the weekend this excess water escaped from the nearby manhole.”
Cambridge City Council was asked to comment.
Meanwhile, the rainfall caused problems at Fulbourn, which is regularly subject to flooding.
Thomas Road was left two to three feet underwater by Sunday’s deluge.
