Flooding scheme ‘being worked on’

A new scheme to aid Spalding streets that frequently flood is being put together it’s been claimed after properties were flooded last week.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue said it had more than 100 calls from Spalding and Pinchbeck residents alone last Wednesday (August 17).

They attributed it to a larger than expected storm which saw 146mm of rain fall in a few hours.

The Met Office’s station in Holbeach recorded that amount, around three times more rain than anywhere else in the UK and nearly three quarters of the volume of the rain received in the area’s wettest month on record in December 2015.

Several local residents though contacted The Voice to say they were fed up of flooding becoming ever more frequent.

Among those were Cathy Levesley who after 17 years living in Park Avenue had to pump water out of her property for the first time.

She says though it’s been getting gradually worse over the years.

“It does it every time we have severe downpours,” she said. “The road floods and because the water has nowhere to go, it just goes under the house.

“It is now beyond a joke.

“As people were driving down the road, it is pushing the water into our house.

“What is going to happen in winter? We can’t possibly keep doing this – someone needs to do something about the drains/road.

“It is so frustrating – we pay our council tax like everyone else and this really isn’t good enough.”

Lorraine Buckingham has lived in Wentworth Close since 1996 and didn’t experience any flooding problems until four years ago.

Her home has now been flooded three times.

One place that’s become a flooding hotspot is Rowan Avenue and Acacia Avenue.

Matthew Poxon said: “What are the council and Anglian Water going to do about this that happens every time it rains?” A spokesman for Lincolnshire County Council said it had already been working on a scheme for the area naming Rowen Avenue in particular.

They said that council officers used the event to help see where the water was getting stuck to help its plans for the scheme.

“Our officers were out at Rowan Avenue monitoring the drainage situation after the heavy downpours,” the spokesman continued. “They were there gathering vital data as part of the current investigation we are carrying out into drainage in the area.

“We currently have a scheme in place looking at improving the drainage and our investigations are ongoing.

“The system is currently under review and the data gathering continuing with a view for a potential programme of improvements in the future.”