"It was like a river running through the house" homes on Garstang road flood but owners blame bypass work

Patricia Carter, who has lived at the property on Garstang Road for over 20 years, claims that the risk of flooding to her home has worsened since roadworks were completed on the A6 two years ago.

A temporary prohibition of through traffic order was made in 2017, that saw "essential Broughton Bypass works to be carried out". Since then, the road, that is built on the floodplains of Bundle Brook, has been resurfaced multiple times.

Since then, Patricia and neighbours Malcolm and Jackie, who live next door, have made multiple complaints to the council and claim they haven't done enough to stop their homes from flooding.

"This has been going on since the council finished works on the bypass about two years ago. I've had intermittent flooding on my drive and porch ever since," said Patricia.

"I contacted the council, who came and put a drain at the front of my drive. So they've acknowledged theres an issue, but it has just been a waste of time. The water runs down the pavement and I am the first house at the lowest point.

"It's like a river and straight down my drive and through my house."

Her daughter, Jayne Kirnon, has now taken Patricia, who suffers with chronic inflammation of her airways, in at her family home because the conditions at the home were "unliveable".

"The stench was vile and made the downstairs completely damp, so it isn't safe for her to be living there with her underlying health conditions," said Jayne.

"The council knew the area was a floodplain, and still chose to build the bypass across it. Although she does live on a dip in the road, she has never struggled with any flooding before.

"It has to be because of all the roadworks and developments in the area, including the new car park across the road. It needs investigating because she has reported it numerous times and been ignored and it's not fair.

"It's too late now because the house has been ruined."

Earlier this year, the council visited the homes to drill a drain into the end of the driveway, to prevent water reaching the homes. Neighbour Jackie Cropper claims the council still haven't done enough, as she has had to temporarily move out of her home.

"At first, I had to stay at my daughter's house because I couldn't live there. That wasn't fair because she's a nurse living with her own children," she said.

"The council have visited our house numerous times and seem to have buried our house in a hole with all the road works. The last time they came, I told them that we needed a grid putting in at the top of the drive but that hasn't been done. They told us it would be sorted out but it has been a waste of time.

"I have never had flooding at my house before, but the council knew the area was at risk because they've had water pumps inserted in the surrounded fields that are permanently flooded."

After living at the semi-detached home for 28 years, Jackie and adjoining neighbour Patricia are calling on the council to do more to prevent future flooding, but claim that the worst of the damage has already been done.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "We received an initial report in February of a surface water flooding issue due to water overtopping the kerb as it runs down the drainage channel in the road during heavy rain.

"We had scheduled work to take place in April to change the profile of the kerb to reduce the risk of this happening, but have had to delay this due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"As an interim measure we carried out some work last week to provide more capacity in the drainage channel by removing some of the road surface next to the kerb, however we will return in the near future to complete the work to the kerb.

"The council's Flood Risk Management team is investigating all the incidents of flooding to homes that are being reported from around Lancashire, with particular attention to those that have had repeated problems. We would ask that people report details of any flooding to property whether recent or historic so that our FRM team can consider them as part of their work to reduce the risk to property caused by flooding in future."