Spon End road widening scheme causing flooding - residents

Residents and business owners in Coventry have said recent road widening is causing them flooding issues.

New drains in the Spon End area block too easily and when it rains, water "cascades" on to the pavement and into their premises and homes, they complain.

Coventry City Council widened roads in the area to improve traffic flow and ease congestion

The drainage work exceeds the previous drainage provision, the council said.

It said previously that if it had not carried out the work, it would have been forced to introduce a clean air zone, covering an area affecting 82,000 residents.

Resident Judy Craig said her dog was "in water up to her knee caps" in her listed home after a bout of heavy rain last month.

She said the council was not interested in helping her and others.

She claimed: "They didn't plane the road so therefore we've got a concave road, higher up with poor drainage, kerb stones that never get cleaned, coming down a slope in tiny little gullies so the water's got nowhere to go."

She said the authority gave her a Floodline number to call and she was advised to buy sandbags which, she added, was just "sticking a plaster on something" and not addressing the issue.

"I live on my own and I'm a pensioner so where do I haul sandbags and sand? Why do I have to do all this?" she said.

Kevin, who runs barbers Kev's Chop Shop on the same road as Ms Craig's property, said his business flooded after the drains became clogged in recent bad weather.

"It blocked with all the leaves in the high winds just coming off the trees and it just cascaded over," he said.

"Of course with the ramp that we've now got at the roadside, [the water] just came over and went in all the shops."

He said he had had about an inch of water in his shop, with water "coming out from under my chair about two days later".

The council said the area was within an identified flood zone but the recent flooding event was classed as a major storm with a rainfall intensity exceeding a 1 in 100 year event.

It added it would be making regular maintenance sweeps. to prevent drains becoming blocked.

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